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ALFRED TENNYSON. 



1/ 

BUen ^Lgman 3FunD an6 ^osepb Bavis jf unD ipublfcation 



A PRIMER 



OF 



English and American 



LITERATURE 

Abel S. Clark, M.A. 



With Twenty-five Portraits of Authors 



Second Edition, Revised ^p^^^ij^''^'^'''''i/^^>\ 

foCT 141896 I 



PUBLISHED BY 

The American School for the Deaf 

Hartford, Conn 

1896 







COPYRIGHT, 1894, 
By the American School, at Hartford, for the Deaf. 



The Case, Lockwood &f Brainard Co., Printers, Hartford, Conn. 



J PREFACE. 

^ nPHIS book has been prepared with special 

1 reference to deaf children, in the hope 

that it will be useful in opening to them 

a glimpse of the wealth and beauty of thought 

embodied in our English tongue. 

I have endeavored to give the subject an 
historical setting in order that the successive 
stages of growth and the relation of the past 
and present conditions of our literature to one 
another may be seen. 

Exception will perhaps be taken to certain 
features of the book, such as, for instance, the 
nature of some of the selections from different 
authors. " What," it may be asked, " have the 
deaf to do with poetry?" Well, in the first 
place, among those likely to use this book there 
will be a proportion of semi-mutes, for whom 
the poetry here given will have no difficulty at 
all; and, further, a careful choice has been 
made of poems in which the thought is so 
clearly and simply expressed that the average 
pupil can understand and enjoy them. 

As for the other selections, it is almost need- 
less to say, they are, in the main, taken from 
authors of the distant past, whose works are 

(iii) 



IV 



not generally accessible to children. For the 
study of modern authors there is abundant 
opportunity in every library, and in special 
editions of Modern Classics. 

In common with those who have prepared 
previous books of this series I gladly acknowl- 
edge my indebtedness to Dr. Job Williams, the 
Principal of the American Asylum, for valu- 
able aid. 

A. S. C. 
Hartford, Apr. lo, 1894. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Origin and Meaning of the word Literature — The Two Forms of 
Literature — Poetry the Earliest Form of Literature — Re- 
ligious and Secular Literature — Have Barbarous People a 
Literature — Value of Early Records — Sources of English 
Literature — Origin of the English Language — Earliest Saxon 
Literature — Beowulf — Nature of Early Saxon Poetry — The 
First Christian Saxon Poem — Caedmon — English Poetry 
after Caedmon — Early War Poetry — Old English Prose — 
Decline of Early English Literature — Revival of Early Lit- 
erature under Alfred — Alfred's Good Work Continued — 
Second Decline — The English Chronicle — The English 
Language — A Living Language Grows, . , = . , i 



CHAPTER II. 

The Influence of Foreign Invasion upon a Language — Slight 
Effect of the Roman Occupation upon the Language of 
Britain — Permanent Effect of the Saxon Occupation — Ef- 
fects of Danish Invasions — Important Influence of the Nor- 
man Conquest — Why the French Language did not Wipe 
out the English — Decline of the French Language in Eng- 
land — Influence of French Language and Literature upon 
English — Rise of Modern English — The Latin Language in 
England — Literary Work in the Monasteries, Matthew Paris 
— Layamon's Brut — The Ormulum — Early English Metrical 
Romances — Early English Songs and Ballads, o = , i6 

(V) 



VI 



CHAPTER III. 



English Literature of the Fourteenth Century — Piers Plowman's 
Vision — Sir John Mandeville — John Wicliffe — John Gower 
— Geoffrey Chaucer — The Canterbury Tales, .... 29 



CHAPTER IV. 

English Literature of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries — 
Fifteenth Century Poetry, Lydgate — Fifteenth Century Prose, 
Pecock, Fortescue, Mallory — The Invention of Printing — 
Sixteenth Century Poetry, Hawes, Skelton, Surrey, Wyatt — 
Sixteenth Century Prose More, The Utopia, Ascham, Tyn- 
dale — Scottish Literature, Dialect, Barbour, James I, Henry- 
son, Dunbar. Lindsay, .,.>....... 39 



CHAPTER V. 

Elizabethan Literature : First Period, Sackville, Fox — Later 
Elizabethan Literature, Lyly, Sidney, Nash, Hooker, Donne, 
Bacon, Spenser, Translations, Religious Poetry — Patriotic 
Poets, Warner, Daniel, Drummond, 60 



CHAPTER VL 

The English Drama : The Mystery Play, Moral Plays, Interludes, 
Udall's Roister Doister, The Gorboduc, Edwards, The Thea- 
ter — Second Period of the Drama, Marlowe, Shakespeare — 
Masques, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Decline of the 
Drama, ...... ,..-.,... 74 



CHAPTER VII. 

Literature of the Seventeenth Century : Raleigh, Burton. Fuller, 
Browne, Walton, Jeremy Taylor, Baxter, Milton, Dryden, 
Bunyan, Locke — Minor Writers — Religious Poetry — News- 
papers, go 



Vll 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Eighteenth Century Literature: I. Poetry, Pope, Gay, Prior, 
Thomson, Watts, Collins, Cowper, Burns, Crabbe, Gray — 
II. Prose, Politics, and Philosophy, Swift, Defoe, Berkeley — 
Essayists, Addison, Steele, Goldsmith — Novelists, Richard- 
son, Fielding-, Smollet, Sterne — Historical Writers, Hume, 
Robertson, Gibbon — Other Waiters, Samuel Johnson, Chat- 
terton, Burke, 113 

CHAPTER IX. 

Nineteenth Century Literature : I. Poetry, The Lake Poets, Cole- 
ridge, Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, Campbell, Byron, Shelley, 
Keats, Moore, Hood, Mrs. Hemans — IL Prose, Lamb, 
Hunt, Bulwer, DeQuincey, . „ . 152 



CHAPTER X. 



^ 



The Victorian Age : Harriet Martineau, Dickens, Carlyle, Thack- 
eray, Macaulay, Robert Browning, Mrs. Browning, Tenny- 
son, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Miller, Kingsley, Rus- 
kin, Macdonald, Hughes, .....,.„., 166 

CHAPTER XL ' 

American Literature. 
Early Writers : Eliot, Edwards, Franklin, The Federalist, . 178 

CHAPTER XII. 

American Literature of the Nineteenth Century : Religious Writ- 
ers — Poets, Halleck, Mrs. Sigourney, Payne, Poe, Bryant, 
Longfellow, Whittier, Stoddard, Miller, Hayne, Lucy Lar- 
com, Stedman, Alice and Phoebe Carey, Wallace Bruce — 
Historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Parkman, Fisk, 182 

CHAPTER XIIL 

American Novelists : Brown, Cooper, Paulding, Drake, Mrs. 
Stowe, Hawthorne, Susan Warner, Winthrop, Crawford, Miss 



Vlll 

Murfree, Wallace, Julian Hawthorn, Eggleston, Roe, Cable. 
Amelia E. Barr, Miss Alcott, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Aid- 
rich, Howells, Miss Woolson, James, Mrs. Burnett, Baker, 
Bishop, Sarah O. Jewett, Page, etc., . . , . . , . 196 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Humorous Writers : Brown, Locke, Saxe, Warner, Harte, 
Clemens, 208 

CHAPTER XV. 

Essayists and other Writers : Irving, Dana, Thoreau, Emerson, 
Curtis, Holland, Taylor, Mitchell, Hale, Higginson, Helen 
Hunt, Lowell, Holmes, Thompson, Winter, Rose Terry 
Cooke, Winsor, Scudder, White, Norton, Fields, Bur- 
roughs, etc., ......,....,.-. 213 



PORTRAITS. 


. Fronti 




Alfred Tennyson, .... 


spiece 


Geoffrey Chaucer, . 




To face 34 


Edmund Spenser, , 






. 66 


William Shakespeare, 






. 80 


John Milton, 






. 100 


Alexander Pope, 






. 114 


William Cowper, 






. 122 


Robert Burns, . 






128 


William Wordsworth, 






» 134 


Walter Scott, . 






„ 140 


Charles Dickens, 






. 146 


Thomas Carlyle, 






. 152 


William Makepeace Thackeray, . 




160 


Thomas Babington Macaulay, 




168 


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 




'7?. 


John Greenleaf Whittier, 




iHT 


Harriet Beecher Stowe, . 




190 


Nathaniel Hawthorne, . 




194 


Louisa May Alcott, .... 




198 


William Dean Howells, , 




202 


Charles Dudley Warner, . 




206 


Samuel Langhorne Clemens, . 




210 


Ralph Waldo Emerson, . 




214 


James Russell Lowell, . 




218 


Oliver Wendell Holmes, 


. • 




222 



(ix) 



PRIMER 



OF 



ENGLISH LITERATURE 



CHAPTER I. 

/. Origin and Meaning of the word Literature. 

Our English word Literature comes from the 
Latin litera, which means a letter or a writing. 
In its widest meaning the word literature in- 
cludes all that has been written in a language, 
but the meaning is generally confined to works 
of taste, sentiment, imagination, or the record 
of human events, such as poetry, eloquence, 
fiction, and history. 

2. The Tzvo Forms of Literature, 

Literature is written in two forms called 
Poetry and Prose. In poetry the thought is 
expressed in a certain orderly way called meas- 
ure or rhythm. It is the form naturally chosen 
by those whose feelings are lifted up in rever- 
ence or awe, while prose is the form in which 
the ordinary facts and events of life are stated. 



J. Poetry the Earliest Form of Literature. 

The earliest literature in nearly all languages 
is in the form of poetry, which is the natural 
language of excited feeling. The Hindoo 
Vedas, the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible, 
and the Sagas of northern Europe are poetic in 
form. 

^. Religious and Secular Literature. 

The subjects that men have written about 
may be divided into two kinds, Religious and 
Secular. Religious literature consists of all that 
has been written about God, including our rela- 
tions to him and his relations to us. Secular 
literature is the record of human events with 
their causes and results. This is History. It 
is also the record of famous persons, or 
Biography. It contains descriptions of mount- 
ains, lakes, rivers, hills, dales, the ocean, or 
Natural Scenery. It tells us of the nature and 
habits of animals and plants, or Natural His- 
tory. It gives us fables, fairy tales, or pictures 
of human life arranged by a vivid imaginatioUo 
This is Fiction. 

5. Have Barbarous People a Literature f 

Barbarous people have little or no literature. 
Their rude songs, their stories of gods and 
heroes, of strife and battle, are told from one 
generation to another by word of mouth, or 
tradition. As barbarous people become civilized 



they learn the art of writing. Then some one 
arises who determines to write down what has 
been passed on from one generation to another 
for hundreds or thousands of years. Thus the 
traditions of a barbarous state give place to a 
permanent or written literature. 

6. The Value of Early Records. 

The earliest writings of a people are of great 
value because they furnish a picture of early 
manners and customs. They show us how 
human beings like ourselves lived long ago ; 
what things they were interested in ; how they 
spent their time ; what they thought of God or 
of nature ; what things they loved, hated, and 
feared. 

7. Sources of our English Literature. 

The people who lived in Britain 2,000 years 
ago, had little or no written literature. All the 
learning they possessed was in the hands of the 
Druids or priests, who taught it by word of 
mouth only, to young men who wished to be- 
come priests. It is thought that the Druids 
abstained from writing down what they knew, 
through fear that the common people would 
become enlightened, and that their own occupa- 
tion would be gone. The Romans, however, 
after their conquest of Britain, A. D. 43, estab- 
lished schools and taught the Britons the Latin 
language. About four hundred years after this 
the Romans withdrew from Britain and the 



Angles and Saxons began to invade the country. 
They drove the Britons into Cornwall and 
Wales, where their descendants still live. Thus 
the Anglo-Saxon language took the place of 
the Celtic or British, but for many years after 
this the Britons had a separate literature of 
their own, in which they celebrated the daring 
deeds of their heroes, especially the doings of 
their most famous chief, King Arthur, who 
with his gallant knights defeated the Saxon 
invaders in twelve battles. We shall learn 
presently what influence this British literature 
has had upon our English literature. 

8. Origin of the English Language. 

Our language belongs to one of the three 
main divisions of the Gothic tongue, which was 
spoken by the barbarians who invaded and con- 
quered the Roman Empire in the fifth century. 
These three divisions are the High-Germanic 
or German ; the Low Germanic or Dutch ; and 
the Scandinavian, spoken in Norway, Sweden, 
Denmark, and Iceland. . The English language 
is thought to belong to the Dutch division, 
though many of the bands that invaded Britain 
in the fifth and sixth centuries came from 
Scandinavian countries. The Angles and 
Saxons came from the peninsula of Jutland 
(now a province of Denmark), and from Schles- 
wick and Holstein. They were of the same 
race as the Franks, Danes, Norwegians, and the 



5 

Northmen, who were afterwards called Nor- 
mans. 

p. The Earliest Anglo-Saxon Literature. 

Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors had a literature 
both of poetry and prose while they still lived 
in their marshy home in Jutland and Holstein. 
But they were heathens, and their literature 
mostly celebrated the battles of their ancient 
chiefs, whom they regarded as gods. One of 
their earliest poems is called The Song of the 
Traveler ; another is called Beowulf. Both of 
these poems were written in the fifth century, 
but the names of the authors are not known. 

10. Beowulf. 

This is an epic, or heroic poem. The scene 
is laid among the Goths of Sweden and Den- 
mark. Hrothgar, king of the Danes, builds a 
castle near the sea. A monster, called Grendel, 
half man and half fiend, lives in the marsh 
near the sea. Often, at night, Grendel comes 
to Hrothgar's castle, enters the hall where the 
thanes lie sleeping, kills one or more of them, 
and carries their bodies to his war-ship to de- 
vour them. For twelve years Hrothgar is com- 
pelled to endure this. There is no one strong 
enough and courageous enough to help him. 
But, finally, Beowulf the mighty sea-hero, comCwS 
to his aid from Sweden. He watches in the 
hall at night, and when the monster comes for 



other victims, Beowulf springs upon him, wres- 
tles mightily with him, and, by a strong effort, 
wrenches off his arm. Grendel, in pain, rushes 
away to his lair, and dies. But Grendel's 
mother comes the next night to avenge her 
son. She breaks into the hall and in the 
absence of Beowulf, kills and devours another 
man, who was the King's best friend. The 
heroic Beowulf offers to fight the she-monster 
also. Going by night to her den, he attacks 
and slays her. After receiving the thanks of 
Hrothgar and his people, Beowulf returns to his 
own land, and rules his people well ; but after 
many years a dragon comes from the hills, and, 
with his breath of fire, destroys houses and 
men. Beowulf resolves to risk his life for his 
people. He goes out to meet the fire-fiend, 
fights with and slays it, but breathes in its fiery 
breath and dies. In the course of the poem 
we are told much of the people and their sim- 
ple mode of life. 

The description of Grendel's dwelling-place 
is striking : 

" Dark is the land 
Where they dwell : windy nesses, and holds of the 

wolf : 
The wild path of the fen where the stream of the wood 
Through the fog of the sea-cliflEs falls downward in 

flood. 
Neath the earth is the flood, and not further from here 
Than one metes out a mile, is the marsh of the moor, 
And the trees o'er it waving outreach and hang over ; 



And root fast is the wood that the water o'erwhelms. 
There the wonder is great that one shuddering sees 
Every night in the flood is a fire." 

//. Nature of Early Saxon Poetry. 

Early Saxon literature reveals the nature of 
the people. It praises heroic deeds on land and 
sea: its heroes delight in meeting difficulties 
for the sake of the joy there is in overcoming 
them : it reverences and fears the powers 
above: it is seldom light and sparkling, but 
is mostly fierce and sad. 

After the arrival of St. Augustine and his 
monks from Rome, 596 A. D,, the Saxons ac- 
cepted the Christian religion. Then they began 
to lay aside their fierce customs and to adopt 
more civilized ways. Poets no longer praised 
the heathen gods. A new and nobler spirit 
came into their poetry. They sang just as 
much of war, but the Christian faith made the 
people less wild and revengeful. 

12. T lie first CJiristian Saxon Poem. 

The first English poem, after the Saxons be- 
came Christians, was written by Caedmon in 
the year 670, and that is when English litera- 
ture really began. 

13. Caedmon was an ignorant man of North- 
umbria, a servant of Hilda, the abbess of Whit- 
by in Yorkshire. When, at feasts, the harp 
was handed around, for each to play and sing 



8 

m turn, Caedmon used to withdraw in sadness, 
being an ignorant and unlearned man. One 
night, says Bede, while Caedmon was keeping 
watch over the cattle in the stable, he fell 
asleep. A stranger appeared to him and asked 
him to sing something. Caedmon replied, '' I 
cannot sing, and that is why I left the feast and 
came hither." The stranger answered, ''You 
shall sing." Then Caedmon suddenly received 
the gift of song and began to sing verses to the 
praise of God. When he awoke, he remem- 
bered what he had sung and added other verses. 
In the morning he went to the town and told 
the steward of the abbey that he had learned 
to sing. The steward brought him before 
Hilda and the learned men, who, on hearing of 
his dream and finding that he had received a 
gift from heaven, made him a monk in the ab- 
bey. There he lived, still unlearned, but list- 
ening to portions of the Bible as they were 
read, thinking them over in his mind and turn- 
ing them into poetry. Thus, Caedmon's poem 
is a paraphrase of the Old and New Testa- 
ments. The chief interest of the poem lies in 
those parts where Caedmon enlarges upon the 
Bible account of persons and places, showing 
us the images that arose in his own mind as he 
listened and pondered. It was written about 
670, and is the beginning of English poetry ir 
England. 



9 

/../. English Poetry after Caedmon. 

After Caedmon, other poets arose who wrote 
religious and secular poems, but chiefly re- 
ligious. At the end of the seventh century, 
Aldhelm, who was a young man when Caed- 
mon died, had no equal for making and sing- 
ing English verse. He used to stand on the 
bridge leading to the town where he lived, and 
as the traders went back and forth, he sang 
them songs to catch their attention ; then min- 
gled with the songs religious poetry, that he 
might teach the people. Aldhelm's songs were 
popular in King Alfred's time, nearly one hun- 
dred years later. 

Another successor of Caedmon was Cynewulf , 
a minstrel at the court of one of the Northum- 
brian kings. His first poems were written, he 
says, when he was a frivolous and sinful man. 
He wrote fine sea-songs. In his Dream of the 
Cross, he tells of the vision which caused him 
to become a religious man. It is a poem of 
great beauty. 

75. Early War Poetry of England. 

No war poetry seems to have been written 
down, in England, before the time of King Al- 
fred. There may have been plenty of it, but 
the monks in the monasteries were not likely 
to write it, and they were the only persons who 
understood the art. The earliest English war 
songs we possess, are the Song of Brunanburh 



lO 

(938), and the Song of the Fight at Maldon (998). 
These are simple but grand poems, full of im- 
agery. The first describes the fight between 
king Athelstan and Anlaf the Dane. " Here 
Athelstan, king of earls the lord, and his broth- 
er Edmund, the atheling, a lasting glory won 
by slaughter in battle with the edges of swords. 
The wall of shields they cleaved, they hewed 
the noble banners. The field was colored with 
the warriors' blood. There lay soldiers many 
with darts struck down. . . . The screamers 
of war they left behind ; the raven to enjoy, 
the dismal kite, and the black raven with horned 
beak, and the hoarse toad ; the eagle, afterwards 
to feast on the white flesh, and the greedy 
battle-hawk, and the grey beast, the wolf, in the 
wood." 

The second of these war poems contained 690 
lines. It gives the story of the death of Brith- 
noth of Northumbria while fighting against 
the Danes. Brithnoth was of Danish descent, 
but a Christian. The poem gives the speeches 
of the heralds and warriors before the fight, 
describes the single combats of the chiefs, the 
steadfastness of Brithnoth's men as they die, 
one by one, defending their lord, and the last 
prayer of the great earl commending his soul 
with thankfulness to God. 

16. Old English Prose. 
The first real writer of good English prose 



II 

was Bede, a Northumbrian, who was born in 
673. Bede entered the monastery at Jarrow at 
ten years of age, and spent his long life there, 
learning, teaching, and writing. He wrote 
many books which were read all over Europe. 
Most of his writings were in Latin, but his last 
work was a translation of the Gospel of St. John 
from the Latin into English. On account of 
his learning, piety, and talents, he was called the 
Venerable Bede. While England was filled 
with barbarous strife, Bede did all he could to 
quiet the passions and soften the manners of 
the people. He died in 735 and was buried in 
the monastery where he had so long lived ; but 
in the middle of the eleventh century his bones 
were taken to Durham Cathedral, where his 
tomb may still be seen. 

i^j. Decline of Early Englisli Literature. 

After the death of Bede literature in Eng- 
land fell into decay and the love of learning 
was almost extinguished. Then the destruc- 
tive Danes came. By them many of the mon- 
asteries, which were the only seats of learning, 
were laid in ashes, and others were deserted 
through fear. Thus it came to pass, that when 
King Alfred was a young man, about the mid- 
dle of the ninth century, he could find no one 
to instruct him in any of the higher branches 
of learning. 



12 

1 8. Revival of Early English Literature. 

After Alfred had freed his kingdom from the 
Danes, he set about the restoration of literature, 
as well as the establishment of peace and order. 
At Winchester, his capital, he had a school con- 
nected with his court. He brought learned 
men from other countries of Europe and estab- 
lished schools where the children of the nobles 
might learn to read and write English. It is 
believed that one of these schools was the be- 
ginning of Oxford University. Alfred also 
translated books of history, philosophy, law, 
and religion from foreign languages into Eng- 
lish for the good of his people. For this rea- 
son King Alfred is often called the father of 
English prose literature. 

/p. Alfred's Good Work Continued. 

The royal successors of King Alfred contin- 
ued the work, he had so well begun, of teaching 
the people. During the reign of Edgar the 
Peaceful (958-975) learning prospered. 

Ethelwald, bishop of Winchester, and Dun- 
stan, archbishop of Canterbury, kept up Eng- 
lish schools, and translated Latin works into 
English. A scholar in Bishop Ethelwald's 
school became the noted Abbot Elfric, who was 
the first person to translate a large part of the 
Old Testament into English. He also wrote 
many good books. 



13 

20. Second Decline of Early Literature, 

In the early part of the eleventh century, the 
Danes came again in great force, and conquered 
the land. During the reign of Danish kings in 
England, from 1013 to 1042, no English litera- 
ture seems to have been produced. In the 
peaceful reign of Edward the Confessor, litera- 
ture began to revive, but the Norman invasion 
in 1066 again repressed it. 

21. The English Chronicle. 

About the middle of the eighth century, 
some one, probably a monk, began to keep a 
record of the births and deaths of bishops and 
kings in English prose. Among these short 
notices, however, there is a tragic story of 
Cynewulf and Cyneheard. 

More than a hundred years later King Alfred 
took up this Chronicle, and made it a sort of 
national history by adding to it all the facts he 
could obtain of national importance, and by 
writing for it an account of his own wars with 
the Danes. The Chronicle was continued dur- 
ing the reign of succeeding kings till it closed 
with the death of Stephen, in 11 54. This 
Chronicle may properly be called the first Eng- 
lish history. 

22. The EnglisJi Language. 

We have learned that the ancient Britons 
spoke a language very different from the Eng- 



14 

lisli, and that when the Angles and Saxons 
drove the Britons into Wales and Cornwall, the 
Celtic language gave place to the English. 
The Angles and Saxons were related to one 
another, and the language of the two tribes was 
almost the same, resembling the Dutch and 
Flemish rather than the German. The new- 
comers called their language the Anglish, or 
English, and they called the new country they 
occupied Angleland, or England. But the lan- 
guage they used was very different in form, 
pronunciation, and appearance from our modern 
English. 

2j. A Living Language Grows. 

The spoken language of a people or nation 
changes greatly as time goes on, and it keeps 
changing as long as it is spoken. When a lan- 
guage ceases to be spoken, it does not change 
or grow any more. Then it is called a dead 
language. Thus the Latin language, formerly 
spoken by the Romans, has been dead many 
years, for it has long been used almost entirely 
m books, or in writing only. It is spoken only 
by a few learned persons, not by any nation. 

So, during the thirteen centuries that the 
English language has been established in Eng- 
land, it has undergone a great change. Early 
English is a foreign language to us. Only 
special scholars, who have spent much time in 
studying it, can now read the earliest English 



15 

books, and not one of them Knows exactly how 
the words were pronounced ; yet, it is the same 
language just as much as the oak tree a thou- 
sand years old is the same tree that it was 
when ten years old ; or as the man of sixty is 
the same person as the child of six 



CHAPTER 11. 

1. lite Influence of Foreign Invasion iq 

Language. 
The invasion and conquest of a country by 
another people, speaking a different language, 
is likely to produce a considerable change in 
the language of the conquered people. It may 
also make a considerable change in the lan- 
guage of the conquerors themselves. 

2. Slight Effects of the Roman Occupatioii upon tJie 

Language of Britain. 
The Roman occupation of Britain was a mili- 
tary one. Roman people did not go to Britain 
to live and make their homes there. Camps of 
Roman soldiers were established in various 
parts of the islands. Roman teachers came 
and instructed the people in religion and in 
various useful arts, and Roman merchants came 
to trade. In our own time, India is held by 
Great Britain in much the same way that Brit- 
ain was formerly held by Rome. Then many 
Britons learned to speak Latin, in schools 
taught by Roman teachers, as many natives of 
India now get an English education in schools 
established bv Englishmen. But the common 

(i6) 



17 

language of the Britons was not much changed 
by the addition of Latin words, and it is not 
probable that many British words found their 
way into Latin. 

J. Permanent Effect of the Saxon Occupation npon 
the Language of Britain. 

The Saxon occupation of Britain was perma- 
nent. The Saxon invaders came intending to 
make Britain their home. They swept the 
Britons and their language away to the western 
part of the island. We may be sure, however, 
that some British words, especially names of 
places, found their way into the speech of the 
Saxon conquerors and that some Saxon words 
got into the language of the Britons. 

Pretty much the same thing has occurred in 
the United States. The white people have 
driven the Indians and their language to the 
far West. Still, not a few Indian names of 
places and rivers remain, and are a part of our 
language, while some other words, such as, 
wigwam^ powwow, wampum, caucus, succotash, 
chowder, and the like, are used as naturally as 
if they had always belonged to us. 

/j.. Effects of the Danish Invasions. 

The Danish invasions and final conquest of 
England had little effect upon the English lan- 
guage, for the Danes were people of the same 
stock and of the same tongue as the English. 



J. Important Influence of the Norman Conquest 

tip on English. 

The Norman conquest was a most serious 
affair for the English people and the English 
language. At first, it seemed likely to destroy 
their literature and change their speech. For- 
tunately, however, the race and the language, 
though they seemed at first to be almost 
crushed, had force and strength enough to re- 
assert themselves after a time. There was, in 
reality, a close relationship between the lan- 
guage of the Normans and that of the English 
whom they conquered, for although the Nor- 
mans came from France and spoke the French 
language, they were originally Northmen, and 
of the same race as the English themselves. 

It is true that at first, and for many years, 
the Normans despised the English, whom they 
had subjugated, and scorned to use their lan- 
guage. The Conqueror divided the land 
among his Norman knights and appointed his 
Norman favorites to be bishops and abbots in 
place of Englishmen. Norman monks were 
made teachers in all the English schools. The 
Norman successors of William I, for at least a 
hundred years, spoke French, and knew little 
or nothing of English. It is said that Richard I 
knew hardly a word of English, and that the 
speech of English kings to the time of Edward 
III (1327) was almost wholly French. 



19 

6. Reasons why the French Language did not Wipe 
Out the English. 
Althougli the Normans in England refused, 
for a long time, to learn to speak English, it is 
said that the Conqueror applied himself to 
learning it, in order that he might be able to 
understand the complaints of the common 
people without the aid of an interpreter. We 
must also bear in mind that although the 
kings and nobles spoke French, the common 
people held to their own language, so that, 
while French was the language of the court 
and of the ruling class, English was the speech 
of everyday life, on the farm, in the shop, and 
in the market. Moreover, the Normans never 
transferred themselves to England in a body. 
The Norman Duke and his soldiers invaded 
England and became masters of it, but they 
did not drive out the native population. After 
a time the descendants of the first Norman 
occupiers of the land came gradually to feel 
that England, not Normandy, was their home ; 
so that when Henry II and his sons brought 
large numbers of their favorites into the land 
from Normandy, those of Norman descent 
allied themselves with the English against the 
new foreigners. From this time the English 
language began to rise in importance, for the 
descendants of the Normans learned to speak 
it. English literature began to grow again, 
and, though for a long time its growth was 



20 

slow, it has never ceased growing from that 
time to this. 

J. Decline of the French Language in England. 

The French language continued in use 
among the higher classes in England down to 
the latter part of the reign of Edward III, but, 
in 1362, a law was passed that all pleadings in 
the English courts should be in the English 
language, but recorded in Latin. This was an 
important change, for it seems to show that 
the rights of the common people were coming 
to be admitted. It is clearly unjust that even 
a criminal should be tried and sentenced in a 
language of which he does not understand a 
word. 

From this time English took the place of 
French in the schools, and those persons who 
continued to speak French mixed with it a 
number of English words, so that the French 
spoken in England came to be very different 
from the French spoken in Paris. So, by 
degrees, the French language became a foreign 
tongue in England. 

8. Influence of the French Language and Litera- 
ture upon English. 
For nearly two centuries after the Conquest 
the English language, spoken by the common 
people, seems to have had only a slight admix- 
ture of Norman words. So long as the Norman 



21 

lords and English serfs were opposed to each 
other the two languages remained distinct ; but, 
when the Normans began to speak English, the 
first step was taken toward a union and a blend- 
ing of the two. After the Normans began to 
use English, they also held to the use of many 
French words. From this time the form of 
many words and sentences in both languages 
was altered, so that, in the course of a hundred 
years from the time the change began, the 
English language was very different in form 
from what it had been. 

p. Rise of Modern English. 

The Friars, who were the only teachers and 
preachers of that time, did much to bring about 
that mixture of Norman French and early 
English which gave rise to modern English. 
They mingled with the people in conversation 
and in teaching, using many French words in 
their speech, till the common people learned 
from them to use the same mixed form of lan- 
guage. Besides this, although the Normans 
came to feel that England was their country 
and learned English speech, they still continued 
to call many things by their French names. 
The knight kept on using French words that 
had to do with war and the chase ; the lawyer, 
words belonging to law and government, and 
Norman ladies retained the use of French 
words for various articles of dress. 



22 

10. The Latin Language in England. 

We have seen that the Romans established 
schools in England where Latin was taught. 
There were such schools in all the chief towns. 
Latin became the ordinary language of the 
priests and other learned men. In the sixth 
century, St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, and 
the British historians, Gildas and Nennius, 
wrote in Latin. 

In the seventh century some Saxons knew 
Latin and Greek. One of the first Saxon 
writers of Latin was Aldhelm, abbot of Malmes- 
bury, who had been educated in Kent at the 
school of Abbot Adrian, a native of Asia 
Minor. All that the Venerable Bede wrote was 
in Latin. For more than a century and a half 
after the Norman Conquest, both in England 
and in other christian countries, Latin was the 
common language of literary composition. It 
was the language spoken in monasteries and 
schools of learning, and in all church services. 
All laws were written in Latin, so also were all 
books on Geometry, Astronomy, Chemistry, 
Medicine, and Natural Science ; but about the 
middle of the thirteenth century the habit of 
speaking good Latin ceased, and Latin litera- 
ture declined. 

11. Literary Work Done in tJie Monasteries. Mat- 

thew Paris. 
The monasteries of Europe were for several 



23 

centuries the chief seats of learning. Before 
the art of printing was discovered, monks 
made copies of the Scriptures in writing. Many 
of these copies were beantifully illuminated 
and adorned on every page with borders in 
rich colors and of elegant design. Monks also 
kept records in Latin of the most important 
events connected with their own monastery, 
and some of these records are now of immense 
value for the facts they contain. Matthew 
Paris, the annalist of the monastery of vSt. 
Albans, was the best Latin chronicler of the 
thirteenth century. He had a wide reputation 
for virtue and ability, and was high in the 
favor of Henry IH. His Chronicle is not 
merely a record. It is full of his own opinions 
of men and things. Here is a selection from a 
translation made by Rev. Mr. Jessop in his 
" Studies of a Recluse." 

'' Did we not find the bones of ou.r brethren 
there, hard by the High Altar when we were 
beautifying the same ? O ye degenerate sons 
of this degenerate age ! Two centuries ago, 
and our monks were men of faith and prayer. 
In the year of grace, one thousand two hun- 
dred and forty-one, we found more than thirty 
of them buried together, and their bones were 
lying there, white and sweet, redolent with the 
odor of sanctity, every one; each man had 
been buried, as he had died, in his monastic 
habit, and his shoes upon his feet, too ! Aye, 



, 24 

and such shoes — shoes made for wear and not 
for wantonness. The soles of these shoes were 
sound and strong ; they might have served the 
purpose for poor men's naked feet even now, 
after centuries of lying in the grave. Blush 
ye! ye with your buckles and your pointed 
toes and your fiddle faddles. These shoes upon 
the holy feet that were dug up were as round 
at the toe as at the heel, and the latchets were 
of one piece with the uppers. No rosettes in 
those days, if you please ! They fastened their 
shoes with a thong, and they wound that thong 
around their blessed ankles, and they cared not 
in those days whether their shoes were a pair. 
Left foot, and right foot, each was as the other ; 
and we, when we gazed at the holy relics — we 
bowed our heads at the edifying sight, and we 
were dumbfounded, even to awe, as we swung 
our censers over the sacred graves of the ages 
past." 

It would be difficult to find anything in mod- 
ern literature more racy than that. 

Matthew Paris was a patriotic Englishman, 
and though a good Catholic, he declared that 
the Pope ought not to encroach upon the rights 
of the church in England, 

12. Lay anion s Brut. 

The first English literary work, after the 
Conquest, was a poem called Layamon's Brut, 
and it has a most interesting history. 



25 

At the court of King Henry I there was a 
Welsh priest called Geoffrey of Monmouth. 
Geoffrey, having a vivid imagination, wrote 
twelve short books of romance, which he called 
History. He said that he had translated this His- 
tory from an ancient Welsh book, which told 
the history of Britain from the time when Brut, 
the great-grandson of Aeneas, landed on the 
shores of Britain (looo B. C.), down to the death 
of King Cadwalader in 689 A.D. Geoffrey's book 
was written in Latin prose and was finished in 
1 147. It seems to have been a collection oi 
Welsh legends, helped out by Geoffrey's invent- 
ive mind. Real historians were angry, and 
said that Geoffrey had daringly and shame- 
lessly lied. This book, however, was the be- 
ginning of English Story-Telling. It made 
quite a sensation in those early times. Many, 
who read it, were delighted. The book found 
its way across the channel to France, and was 
there translated and enlarged by the addition 
of French legends. This translation and en- 
largement was the work of a Norman poet, 
named Wace. Finally, the story in this French 
form found its way back to England and was 
translated into English by a priest, named 
Layamon, who added to it largely. 

The Brut of Layamon is a poem of more than 
32,000 lines, and it is twice the length of 
Wace's Brut. It consists almost entirely of 
English words, and gives an imaginary history 



26 

of the island and its people, including the story 
of King Arthur and his knights of the Round 
Table. 

Layamon, remember, is the first great writer 
of English after, the Conquest. 

/J. TJie OriJiiihun. 

Soon after Layamon's Brut, another English 
poem called the Ormuliim appeared. Its date 
is fixed about the year 12 15, the year when 
King John was compelled to sign Magna 
oharta. The Ormulum was the work of Orm, 
or Ormin, and was a book of homilies, or 
religious lessons for each day. There is but a 
single manuscript of the Ormulum. This is 
believed to be the author's own autograph, and 
it is preserved in the Bodleian Library at 
Oxford. The Ormulum may be called the first 
religious English poem. 

i/f.. Early English Metrical Romances. 

We have seen that the Brut and the Ormulum, 
which were respectively the first historical and 
the first religious poems after the Conquest, 
appeared in the early part of the thirteenth 
century. 

Another form of literature, that appeared at 
about the same time, may be called the English 
Romances, or works of the imagination. 

Most of these romances were translations 
from the French, though nearly all were in the 
first place legends of British or Saxon origin. 



27 

The most important of them, Tlie Romance of 
Sir Tristram, one of King Arthur's knights ; 
TJic Story of Havclok t lie Dane ; and King Horn, 
appeared towards the end of the thirteenth 
century. About the year 1300, Robert of 
Gloucester wrote his Rhyming Chronicle, a 
history of England from Brutus, about 1000 
B.C., to Edward III, about 1350 A.D. 

Here is a selection from Robert of Glouces- 
ter's poem, showing hoAv queer our English 
language Avas then : 

" Thus come lo ! Englande into Normannes honde, 
Thus lo ! England came into the hand of the Normans, 
And the Normans ne couthe speke the bote her owe 

speche, 
And the Normans could not speak then but their own 

speech. 
And speke French as dude atom, and here ch^^ldren 

dude al so teche. 
And spoke French as they did at home and their child- 
ren did all so teach ; 
So that heymen of this lond that of her blod come, 
So that high men of this land that of their blood come, 
Holdeth alle thulke speche that hii of hem norne. 
Retain all the same speech that they of them took. 
Vor bote a man couthe French, me tolth of hym well 

lute ; 
For, unless a man know French, one talketh of him 

little ; 
Ac lowe men holdeth to Englyss and to her kunde 

speche yute. 
But low men hold to English, and to their natural 

speech yet. 



28 

Ac wel me wot vor to conne bothe wel yt ys. 

But well I know it is well for us to know both, 

Vor the more that a man con the more worth he ys. 

For the more that a man knows, the more worth he is." 

All the metrical romances of the fourteenth 
century were in English instead of French. 
They were very popular at that time, but in 
the fifteenth century interest in this form of 
poem declined and did not revive again till 
three hundred years later, when Walter Scott 
produced his charming poems and stories. 

75. Early English Songs and Ballads. 

While the chief writers were busy with their 
poems and romances, others were writing 
ballads, love songs, and songs of war. These 
were sung all over the land by gleemen, or 
wandering minstrels, who went from place to 
place, and were welcome, alike, in the hut of 
the poor and the castle of the noble. Some of 
these songs were in praise of Robin Hood, an 
outlaw and robber, who lived in Sherwood 
Forest, Nottinghamshire, in the twelfth cen- 
tury. 



CHAPTER III. 



I. English Literature of the Fourteenth Century, 

We have now reached the end of the thir- 
teenth century. By this time the people of 
England, Saxons and Normans, were becoming 
welded together and were using the same lan- 
guage, which was the old Anglo-Saxon with 
many French words added. 

The most important English literature of the 
fourteenth century was of a religious character. 
This was probably brought about by several 
causes. For one thing the Friars in the thir- 
teenth century had been preaching with un- 
usual earnestness, and had also set a good 
example in their lives. 

For another thing the people were in great 
poverty and misery, owing to the wars of Ed- 
ward III with France. They were burdened 
with heavy taxes, and were subject to very 
severe laws, and they gladly listened to the 
promises of peace and rest in a future life. 

Moreover, a Plague, called the Black Death, 
swept over the land in the years 1349, '62, and 
'69, carrying thousands into their graves. Thus 
the public mind was made sober and thought- 
ful. 

(29) 



30 

2. Piers Plowmmis Vision. 

The first religious book of the fourteenth 
century in England was called Piers Plozvmans 
Vision. 

The author of this work was William Lang- 
land, born about 1332, in Shropshire. It is 
thought that he was a monk, and that he lived 
near the Malvern Hills. He began his Vision 
about the year 1362, and added to it from time 
to time, till just before his death, in 1400. For 
a time he lived in London, and while there he 
describes himself as a tall, gaunt figure clothed 
in black robes, in which he sang for a few pence 
at funerals. He was called Long Will, and he 
was very independent, for he tells us that he 
hated to take off his cap to bow to the lords 
and ladies riding by, as he stalked moodily 
along the Strand. 

The Vision was quite popular. In it Lang- 
land represents himself as falling asleep by the 
side of a brook on a morning in May. In a 
dream, or vision, he sees a '' field full of folk." 
Among these folk are persons who stand for 
various virtues and vices, such as Truth, False- 
hood, Bribery, Envy, Pride, Sloth, also Con- 
science, Reason, Religion, the Church. In the 
Vision we have vivid pictures of friars, nuns, 
robbers, of village life, London alehouses, and 
all the vices of the time. After the vision the 
dreamer awakes, weeping bitterly. Langland's 
poem had a great influence over men's minds. 



31 

It is an allegory, similar to Bunyan's Pilgrims 
Progress, in that it shows the hindrances and 
temptations that beset men in this life. 

The poem is long, consisting of more than 
14,000 lines, and is divided into twenty parts. 
It is the earliest poetical work that people of 
these days can read with any pleasure, because 
its language is so much like that of our time. 
It is not in rhyme but consists of a singular 
kind of verse called alliterative, having in the 
same line as many words as possible beginning 
with the same letter. Here is a specimen, in 
which he describes the magnificence of a 
monk's dwelling. 

I found there 
A hall for a high king a household to holded, 
With broad boards a bouten y-benched well clean 
With windows of glass wrought as a church 
And chambers with chimneys, and chapels gay. 

J. Sir John Mandeville {ijoo~ij'/2). 11 

Another writer of the fourteenth century 
was Sir John Mandeville. He may also be 
called the first great English traveler. When 
about twenty-seven years of age he left Eng- 
land, and after thirty-three years wandering 
through Europe, Asia, and Africa, he returned 
to his native land, where he wrote an account 
of his travels, in Latin, French, and English. 
His book was long popular and was translated 
into many languages. 



32 

Here is what Mandeville says of the Chinese 
emperor. 

" The great king has every day fifty fair 
maidens that serve him always at his meat. And, 
when he is at the table, they bring him his 
food five and five together. And in bringing 
it they sing a song. After that they cut his 
meat and put it in his mouth ; for he neither 
touches, nor handles anything, but always holds 
his hands before him on the table. He has 
such long nails that he can handle nothing. 
For it is a sign of nobility in that country to 
have long nails and to let them grow as long as 
possible. Many have their nails so long that 
they surround the hand, and that is a sign of 
great nobility. 

The nobility of the women consists in having 
very small feet. When very young their feet 
are bound so tight that they cannot grow to 
half their natural size. These maidens that I 
spoke of sing all the time that the king eats, 
and when he has eaten the first course, then 
five and five other maidens bring in the second 
course, they also singing. In this way he 
spends his life, and so did his ancestors before 
him, and so will his children after him, without 
doing any deed of arms but living ever thus in 
ease like a pig that is fed in a sty, to be made 
fat." 



33 

^. John Wicliffe {1J24.-IJ84). 

While people all over England were reading 
the Vision of Piers Plowman, John Wicliffe was 
busy translating the Bible from the Latin, 
called the Vulgate, into English. This had 
been partly done by the Venerable Bede nearly 
seven hundred years before, and Bishop 
Aldhelm had translated the book of Psalms ; 
but after the Popes began to rule the church, 
in England, only Latin Bibles were allowed, 
and those could be read only by the priests, who 
kept them in their own hands. Wicliffe put 
parts of his translation into the hands of 
preachers, who went from village to village 
and circulated them among the common people. 
He also wrote many tracts and sermons, but 
his translation of the Scriptures was his best 
work. It benefited the people, and it has had 
much to do with fixing our language in its 
present form. 

5. John Gower {ij2j-i^o8). 

John Gower was a friend of Chaucer, who 
called him " Moral Gower." When he was 
young, he wrote ballads in French, but as he 
grew older and more grave, he wrote works 
aiming to reform the morals and manners of 
the people. Gower's chief work is called 
Confessio Amantis, the Confession of a Lover. 
In it he represents himself as an unhappy 
lover. Venus appears to him and appoints her 



34 

priest, called Genius, to hear his complaint. 
Gower reproved the vices and follies of his 
time. He was a careful writer, but his books 
are quite tedious. 

6. Geoffrey Chancer {ij/fo-i/foo). 

The most noted writer of the fifteenth cen^ 
tury was Geoffrey Chaucer. There is an un- 
certainty about the year of Chaucer's birth. 
The date, 1328, carved upon his ancient tomb- 
stone in Westminster Abbey, is thought to be 
incorrect. Probably 1340 is more nearly right. 
His father, John Chaucer, was a wine merchant 
of Thames Street, London, and the poet spent 
the greater part of his life in that city. Of his 
early life we know very little. It is believed 
that he studied at Cambridge, intending to be 
a lawyer, but that he gave up the law through 
dislike for it. 

At about sixteen years of age he obtained a 
place at the court of Edward III, and after- 
wards served under that monarch in his cam- 
paign against France, where Chaucer was taken 
prisoner. Being ransomed, he returned to 
England and to the court, where his genius 
soon made him popular. At court he became 
acquainted with Philippa, his future wife, a 
younger sister of the wife of John of Gaunt, 
Duke of Lancaster, and it was probably through 
this connection that he obtained a position in 
a government office, which he held for six 




GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 



35 

years, from 1366 to 1372. During this period 
Chaucer began to write in imitation of the 
French literature of the time. What he then 
wrote was full of kings, queens, beautiful 
ladies, and brave knights, and pious nightin- 
gales singing praises to God. " This is called 
his French period. In 1372 Chaucer was sent 
by the king on business of State to Genoa. 
Italian literature was then at its noblest height, 
through the works of Dante, the father of 
modern Italian poetry ; Petrarch, the reviver 
of ancient learning ; and Boccacio, the father 
of modern Italian prose. While in Italy 
Chaucer became acquainted with Petrarch, 
and, probably, with Boccacio, and received 
from them fresh poetic impulse. 

On returning to England he was a neiv man. 
He threw aside the romantic French style of 
poetry. Then what is called his Italian period 
began. He adopted Italian stories and placed 
them in an English setting. During the 
period from 1372 to 1384 he wrote some of the 
famous Canterbury Tales. Chaucer probably 
took the idea of these tales from the Decameron 
of Boccacio, in which seven young men and 
three young women are represented as going 
into the country to escape the plague then 
raging in the city of Florence. To pass away 
the time, each of them tells a story during 
each of their ten-days stay, making one hun- 
dred tales in all. 



36 

During the absence of John of Gaunt in 
Spain, looking after some estates there, Chau- 
cer had the misfortune to lose his government 
office, and fell into comparative poverty ; but 
he then found more time for writing, and pro- 
duced the rest of he Canterbury Tales. This 
time, from 1384 to his death, is called Chaucer's 
English period. He died in a house near 
Westminster Abbey and was buried within the 
Abbey's walls, the first poet to be laid in what 
is now called Poets' Corner. 

7. The Canterbury Tales. 

Chaucer wrote much, but the Canterbury 
Tales is his greatest work. It consists of 
twenty-four tales, containing, in all, above 
17,000 lines of poetry, besides more than a 
fourth of that quantity in prose. In these tales 
he supposes that a mixed company of twenty- 
nine persons meet by chance at the Tabard 
Inn, Southwark, in London. They are travel- 
ers, intending, on the morrow, to set out on 
pilgrimage for the shrine of Thomas a Becket, 
at Canterbury. After the company has eaten 
supper and paid for it, the inn-keeper, " a large 
man, bold of speech and wise," offers to go 
with them on condition that each person, in- 
cluding himself, should tell two stories while 
going, and two more returning, and that when 
they get back to the Tabard, the one who had 
told the best stories should have a supper at 



37 

the expense of the rest. They all agree to the 
landlord's proposal. This plan, carried out, 
would have given us a hundred and twenty 
tales, instead of the twenty-four we now have. 

Chaucer gives us first a Prologue^ or Intro- 
duction, of more than eight hundred lines, in 
which the pilgrims are severally described. It 
is like a gallery of portraits, showing the 
different persons with all the artistic strokes of 
a painting and all the fine details of a photo- 
graph. Each tale also has its own Prologue, 
given by the teller of the story. 

Here is a word-picture from the general 
Prologue : 

There was also a nun, a Prioress, 
That of her smiling was full simple and coy. 
Her great oath was but by Saint Eloy ; 
And she was called Madame Eglantine. 
Full well she sang the service divine, 
Entuned in her nose full sweetly ; 
And French she spake full fair and neatly 
After the school of Stratford at Bow, 
For French of Paris was to her unknow. 
At meat she was well taught withal. 
She let no morsel from her lips fall, 
Nor wet her fingers in her sauce deep ; 
Well could she carry a morsel and well keep 
That no drop ever fell upon her breast. 



She was so charitable and so piteous, 
She would weep if that she saw a mouse 
Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bled. 
Of small hounds had she that she fed 



38 

With roasted flesh, and milk and waste bread ; 

But sore wept she if one of them were dead, 

Or if men smote it with a rod smart ; 

And all was conscience and tender heart. 

Full seemly her wimple pinched was, 

Her nose tretis', her eyes were grey as glass, 

Her mouth full small, and also soft and red, 

But surely she had a fair forehead ; 

It was almost a span broad, I trow. 

For certainly she was not undergrow. 

Full fetise'^ was her cloak as I was ware. 

Of small coral about her arms she bare 

A pair of beads gouded^ all with green, 

And thereon hung a brooch of gold full sheen. 

On which was first written a crowned A, 

And after, — Amor vincit oimiia. 

Some of the other members of this company 
were, a Knight ; a Merchant ; a Learned Clerk ; 
a Lawyer ; a Carpenter ; a Cook ; a Doctor ; a 
Miller; a Friar; a Monk; a Sailor; a Parson; 
and a Wife of Bath. 

The Tales are told easily, gracefully, and 
naturally. They are full of humor and pathos. 
Chaucer was our first great artistic poet, and 
no succeeding poet, except Shakespeare, has 
equaled him in the strength and variety of his 
work. He may therefore be called the Father 
of English Poetry. 



1 Long, well proportioned, 

2 Neat. 

3 Colored. 



CHAPTER IV. 

English Literature of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth 
Centuries. 

I . We have tlius far viewed English litera- 
ture from, the earliest known beginning, before 
the Angles and Saxons took possession of Brit- 
ain, down to the reign of Henry IV in the year 
1400, a period of about a thousand years. We 
have noticed the great but gradual change that 
took place in the form of our language and 
literature during the period from the time 
when a pagan wrote Beowulf, to the Christian 
poems of Langland and Gower, and the charm- 
ing Tales of Chaucer. 

We have seen that the Norman conquest, 
which at first checked the growth of the Eng- 
lish language and threatened to overwhelm it, 
only modified, improved, and enlarged it. 

We have seen that our literature was much 
enriched by stories and legends taken from the 
ancient Britons, and from the great Italian 
poets, till finally it had a character and style 
of its own in the later writings of Chaucer. 
We have also seen that the Scriptures were 
translated by Wicliffe into the language of the 
people. We must bear in mind, however, that 
up to this time and for three-quarters of a cen. 

(39) 



40 

tnry later, there were no printed Ejiglish books. 
Few of tlie common people could either read or 
write. Such books as existed were in manu- 
script, and were therefore very scarce and costly. 
A Bible sometimes cost forty pounds. 

2. Fifteenth Century Poetry. 

The fourteenth century was a time of won- 
derful productiveness in English literature. 
The fifteenth century, on the contrary, was 
most barren. Closely following the death of 
Chaucer, there were numerous poets, who imi- 
tated his style and partook in some degree of 
his spirit, but they were wholly lacking in his 
genius. 

John Lydgate. By far the most famous of 
the fifteenth centur)^ versifiers was John Lyd- 
gate, who was thirty years of age when Chaucer 
died. Lydgate was a gay and pleasant person, 
a graduate of Oxford and a monk of Bury. 
He traveled in France and Italy, and was well 
acquainted with the literature of his time. As 
a poet he was very prolific, but long-winded, 
and seems to have been able to write poems 
to order on all sorts of subjects. Lydgate's 
chief poem is the Fall of Princes, a translation 
from the French, of a Latin work of Boccacio. 
In it the great men and women, from the 
time of Adam to the capture of King John of 
France, in 1356, appear before Boccacio in his 
library, and each in turn tells the sorrowful 



41 

story of his downfall. Lydgate also wrote a 
History of TJicbcs, and the Siege of Troy. 

J. FifteentJi Century Prose. 

The leading prose writers of the fifteenth 
century Avere Pecock, Fortescne, and Mallory. 

Reginald Pecock Avas an earnest defender 
of the Church, in the controversy that raged 
betAveen the Church and the Lollards, or 
Bible-men, during the reigns of Henry V and 
Henry VI. His attack upon the Lollards, hoAv- 
CA'cr, brought upon him the enmity of Church 
men, because he declared that the Bible AA^as 
the onh^ rule of faith. He AA^as charo^ed with 
heresy, and compelled AA^th his OAAm hands to 
commit fourteen of his books to the flames, at 
St. Paul's Cross. The important thing to re- 
member about Pecock is that he AA-as the first 
Church man, or theologian, AA^ho AAa*ote in Eng- 
lish prose. 

Sir John Fortescue, another eminent prose 
AA^riter, AA^as Lord Chief Justice under Henry 
VL His chief book is on the Difference betiveen 
an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy. In it he con- 
trasts the sufferings and misery of the French 
people under their tyrannical kings with the 
greater freedom of Englishmen under their 
Constitution. 

Sir Thomas Mallory is remembered for his 
history of King Arthur, commonly called the 
Morte d Arthur, \Yh\ch he translated from French 
3 



42 

into English. This work shows that Mallory 
was a man of genius. Caxton, the first English 
printer, was charmed by it and printed it in 1474. 

Here is an extract on the grief of Sir Lan- 
celot, one of Arthur's Knights: 

'' Then Sir Lancelot, ever after ate but little 
meat, nor drank, but continually mourned, until 
he was dead ; and then he sickened more and 
more, and dried and dwindled away. For nei- 
ther the Bishop, nor any of his fellows could 
make him eat, and little he drank so that he 
soon grew a cubit shorter than he was and peo- 
ple did^not know him. For evermore, day and 
night, he prayed, taking no rest except what 
nature required; sometimes he slumbered a 
broken sleep, and always he was lying grovel- 
ing upon King Arthur's and Queen Guinevere's 
tomb ; and there was no comfort that the Bishop, 
or Sir Bors, or any of his fellows could make 
him. 

" Oh ! ye mighty and pompous lords, winning 
in the glorious transitory of this unstable life, 
reigning over great realms and mighty great 
countries ; fortified with strong castles and 
towers, edified with many a rich city ; yea also, 
ye fierce and mighty knights so valiant in ad- 
venturous deeds of arms, behold ! behold ! see 
how this mighty conqueror, King Arthur, whom 
in his human life -all the world dreaded, yea 
also the noble Queen Guinevere, who once sat in 
her chair adorned with gold, pearls, and pre- 



43 

ciotis stones, now lie full low in obscure foss or 
pit covered with clods of earth or clay ! Be- 
hold also this mighty champion, Sir Lancelot, 
peer of all knighthood ; see now how he lieth 
groveling upon the cold mould ; now being so 
feeble and faint, that once was so terrible : how, 
and in what manner, ought ye to be so desirous 
of worldly honor so dangerous? 
Therefore I think you should accustom your- 
selves to follow gracious and knightly deeds ; 
that is to say, to fear God and to love righteous- 
ness, faithfully and courageously to serve your 
sovereign prince ; and the more God hath 
given you triumphal honor, the meeker ought 
ye to be, ever fearing the unstableness of this 
deceitful world." 

Here is the account of Sir Lancelot's burial : 
''And so within fifteen days they come to 
Joyous Guard, and there they laid his corpse 
in the body of the choir, and sung and read 
many psalters and prayers over him and about 
him ; and his visage was laid open and naked, 
that all folk might behold him. For such was 
the custom in those days, that all men of wor- 
ship should so lie with open visage, till they 
were buried. And as they were at their ser- 
vice, there came Sir Ector de Maris, that had 
sought seven years all England, Scotland, and 
Wales, seeking his brother, Sir Lancelot. 

''And then Sir Ector threw his shield, his 



44 

sword, and his helmet from him ; and when he 
beheld Sir Lancelot's visage he fell down in a 
swoon ; and when he awoke, it were hard for 
any tongue to tell the doleful complaints that 
he made for his brother. 'Ah, Sir Lancelot,' 
said he, 'thou wert head of all Christian 
Knights.' 'And now I dare say,' said Sir Bors, 
' thou wert the courtliest knight that ever bare 
shield; and thou wert the truest friend that 
ever bestrode horse ; and thou wert the truest 
lover that ever loved woman ; and thou wert 
the kindest man that ever struck with sword ; 
and thou wert the goodliest person that ever 
came among press of knights; and thou wert 
the meekest man and the gentlest that ever ate 
in hall among ladies ; and thou wert the stern- 
est knight to mortal foe that ever put spear in 
rest.'" 

/J.. The Invention of Prmting. 

Before closing our review of fifteenth cen- 
tury literature we must notice the most impor- 
tant event of that century, or of any other 
since the beginning of the Christian era, viz., 
the discovery of the art of printing. 

There are many claimants to the honor of 
this invention. By some it is affirmed that the 
idea of printing with movable blocks first 
occurred to Laurentius Coster of Haarlem, in 
Holland, and that it came about in this way : 
While walking one day in the woods,- near the 



45 

city, Coster amused himself by cutting letters 
on the bough of a beech tree. Suddenly the 
thought struck him that he might take the 
impression of these letters with ink to please 
his grandchildren. He was so pleased with 
the result that he and his son-in-law applied 
themselves to improving the discovery. They 
made wooden types, but, for a time, could 
print only on one side of a page. It is said 
that Coster set up a press in his house, and 
wished to keep the discovery a secret, but that 
two of his servants stole his types. 

The general belief, however, is that John 
Gutenberg of Maintz, in Germany, was the 
real inventor of printing about the year 1438. 
This useful art was first introduced into Eng- 
land by William Caxton in 1476. Caxton was 
born in Kent about the year 1422. In early 
life he was apprenticed to a mercer. In 1441 
he went to Bruges and learned printing from 
Colard Mansion, a well known printer of that 
city. After printing several books in Germany, 
Caxton came to England and set up the first 
printing press at Westminster. The first book 
printed in the English language was made by 
Caxton in Germany. It was a translation from 
a French book called the History of Troy. 
The first book Caxton printed in England was 
on the Game of Chess. The types were made 
in Germany. The letters were not the Roman 
characters now used, but German characters. 



46 

In these German characters, all English books 
were printed for more than a century. Books 
in this character are now said to be printed in 
black-letter. In the reign of James I the Roman 
character was adopted and the black-letter was 
dropped. 

Caxton printed no less than ninety-nine dif- 
ferent books, including the works of Chaucer, 
Lydgate, Gower, the Chronicle of the Brut, 
and the Morte d'Arthur. Then, for the first 
time, books were brought within the reach of 
ordinary readers. Besides printing, Caxton 
also translated many- books from other lan- 
guages into English, for he was a good 
linguist. Before his death, in 1491, several 
other printing presses were set up in England 
by foreigners and Englishmen. There was a 
press at Oxford in 1478. 

5. English Literature in the Sixteenth Century. 

When Henry VIII became king, in 1 509, a 
marked revival of literature was in progress. 
Learning was fashionable. Great scholars 
spent their time in writing grammars and 
other books to help the unlearned. John 
Colet, Dean of St. Pauls, and William Lilly, the 
grammarian, opened a school where the classics 
were taught. Between the years 1500 and 
1536 twenty grammar schools were established 
in different parts of the kingdom. 

Among persons of high rank it was con- 



47 

sidered a desirable accomplishment to be able 
to write and speak pure Latin. The king him- 
self was distinguished for his scholarship, and 
did much to encourage the spread of learning. 
The leading English poets of the time were 
Hawes, Skelton, Surrey, and Wyatt. 

Stephen Hawes was an imitator of Lydgate 
and Chaucer. His chief work, the Pastime of 
Pleasure, was written about I5i5« 

John Skelton, a graduate of Cambridge, and 
tutor of Prince Henry, afterwards Henry VIH, 
became a warm advocate of the Reformation. 
His poem, Why come ye not to Court? was a fierce 
satire on Cardinal Wolsey, who was at one time 
his patron, but afterwards became his bitter 
enemy. 

Skelton's Book of Philip Sparrow is an elegy 
on the sparrow of fair Jane Scroop, which was 
slain by a cat. This poem of nearly 1,400 lines 
is written in elegant language, and is full of 
elastic playfulness. 

Surrey {1^16-1^//.'/). 

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Sir 
Thomas Wyatt, are linked together as the 
founders of our modern style of poetry. They 
both traveled in Italy and there gained the 
inspiration that enabled them to re-model 
English poetry. They are called the Amourists, 
because they wrote a series of poems on love. 



48 

Surrey's poetry was so polished and refined 
that it drove out the rugged poetry of the time, 
and set a new standard, which all succeeding 
poets have followed. He was also the first 
EnglivSh poet who used what we call blank 
verse, which consists of ten syllables in a line 
without ending in rhyme. Surrey was the last 
victim of that royal tyrant, Henry VHI, losing 
his life by the axe of the executioner at the 
early age of thirty. 

Wyatt {^1503-154-2). 

Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Surrey, were warm 
personal friends, and both did much to improve 
our literature. Wyatt was born in Kent and 
educated at Cambridge. Like Surrey, he was 
an elegant scholar, brave in arms, and accom- 
plished in all the arts of peace. He was a favor- 
ite with the King and Court, for his wit was 
inexhaustible. The chief bond between Surrey 
and himself was their contempt of vice, and 
their exalted love of virtue. 

An extract from one of Wyatt's letters to his 
son will give us a glimpse of his character : 

. '' Make God and goodness your 
foundations. Make your examples of wise and 
honest men ; shoot at that mark : be no mocker : 
mocks follow them that delight therein. He 
shall be sure of shame that feeleth no grief in 
other men's shames. Have your friends in rev- 
erence, and think unkindness to be the greatest 



49 

offence. Love well, and agree with, your wife, 
for where is noise and debate m the house 
there is unquiet dwelling. Frame well your- 
self to love and rule well and honestly your 
wife as your equal, and she shall love and rev- 
erence you as her head. Such as you are unto 
her, such shall she be unto you." 

6. Prose zvriters of the Sixteenth Century. 

After the death of Chaucer, who wrote good 
prose, as well as poetry, no good prose writer 
arose for more than a century. One of the 
best writers of prose literature in the sixteenth 
century was Sir Thomas More (i 480-1 535). 

More was the most prominent man in Eng- 
land in the reign of Henry VIII. When he 
was a boy, he was in the family of Cardinal 
Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who used to 
say to his guests, ''This child here waiting at 
the table, whoever shall live to see it, will prove 
a marvellous man." Dean Colet used to say, 
"There is but one wit in England, and that is 
Thomas More." He entered Oxford at seven- 
teen, and at twenty-two he was elected a mem- 
of Parliament. He was sent abroad on several 
important missions and became a special favor- 
ite of Henry VIII. The King used to visit 
him at his home in Chelsea, and walked with 
him by the hour in his garden, holding his arm 
about his neck. But More understood his 



50 

master's nature. Once, when he was congratu- 
lated on having the King's favor, he replied, 
" If my head would win him a castle in France, 
it would not fail to go." This was afterward 
proved to be true. On the fall of Wolsey, 
More was appointed Lord Chancellor. When 
the King wanted to obtain a divorce from Cath- 
arine of Aragon, that he might marry Anne 
Boleyn, More refused to give his authority for 
it, and resigned his office. This turned the 
King's favor into hatred. More was sent to 
the Tower, where he was imprisoned thirteen 
months. He was then tried, convicted, and 
beheaded. His head was placed on London 
Bridge, but his daughter came at night in a 
boat, and took it away. More was a man of true 
genius and of great learning. His chief literary 
work was the Utopia. This name he gave to an 
imaginary island. It had the most perfect laws 
and customs. All the houses had large gardens 
in the rear. Nothing was private within, and 
any person who wished might go in. Every 
tenth year the houses were changed by lot. 

Agriculture was the chief pursuit, but every 
man had some special trade. Fashions never 
altered, and each family made its own clothes. 

In traveling, the people carried nothing with 
them, for they were at home everywhere. 
There were no liquor shops, and the business 
of making or selling intoxicating drinks was 
unknown. They wore no jewels or precious 



51 

stones, but were satisfied to look at the stars 
and the sun. No man was respected for his 
fine clotlies, and poor men, who were wise and 
good, were not obliged to be the servants of 
some bad or foolish rich man. 

There was no hunting for pleasure on that 
island. The people thought it shameful for a 
weak, harmless, and timid hare, to be pursued 
by a strong, fierce, and cruel dog. 

In Utopia there were no lawyers to get rich 
by other peoples' quarrels. Each man was al- 
lowed to plead his own cause, and the decision 
was left to the judge. 

War was considered hateful and brutal, but 
the people gloried in a victory gained by dex- 
terity and good conduct. 

The word Utopia, which More made from 
two Greek words meaning 7io land, has now 
passed into all the languages of Europe, to sig- 
nify a state of ideal perfection. Utopian is 
used to mean whatever is fanciful or impracti- 
cal. 



14. The following extract is from a letter 
written by More to his wife, when he heard 
that a fire had destroyed his own and some of 
his neighbors' barns : 

. '' I am informed by my son Her- 
on of the loss of our barns and our neighbors' 
also with all the corn that was therein. It is a 
great pity that so much good corn is lost, but 



52 

since it has pleased God to send us sucli a 
chance, we must and are bound not only to be 
contented, but also to be glad. He sent us all 
that we have lost, and since he has, in this way, 
taken it away again, his pleasure is fulfilled. 
Let us not grudge it, but heartily thank him as 
well for adversity as prosperity. Perhaps we 
have more cause to thank him for our loss than 
our winnings, for his wisdom better seeketh 
what is good for us than we do ourselves. 
Therefore, I pray you, be of good cheer, and 
take all the household with you to church, 
and there thank God, both for what he has 
given us, and for what he has taken from us, 
and for what he hath left us ; which if it 
please him, he can increase when he will ; and 
if it please him to leave us still less. His will 
be done. 

" I pray you to make good search what my 
poor neighbors have lost, and bid them take no 
thought therefor. For if I should not leave 
myself a spoon, there shall no poor neighbor of 
mine bear loss by my misfortune." . 

Roger Ascham {1^1^-1^68). 

The name of Roger Ascham stands high in 
English literature. He was both a fine scholar 
and a good writer. He was for two years 
tutor to the Princess Elizabeth, and after she 
became queen, she appointed him her secretary, 
and tutor in the Greek and Latin languages. 



53 

Ascham's two principal works are the 

Toxophilus and TJie Schoolmaster. In the Toxo- 

philiis he defends and advocates the practice of 

shooting with the bow, not only in war, but as 

a pleasant exercise in time of peace. 

In The Schoolmaster he shows the value of the 
teacher to the community, and urges that he 
should be decently paid. Dr. Johnson said 
that Ascham's Schoolmaster contained the best 
advice ever given for the study of languages. 

Ascham wrote a purer and more correct style 
of English than most writers of his day, and 
rejected the use of foreign words, then so 
fashionable. 



William Tyndale {i/f-yy-i^jd). 

The most important literary work of the 
sixteenth century was the translation of the 
Bible by William Tyndale about the year 1525. 
Wicliffe had given us the first English version 
of the Bible one hundred and fifty years before. 
That was from the Latin Vulgate. Tyndale's 
translation was from the original Hebrew and 
Greek. 

Tyndale tried first to do the work in Eng- 
land, but was so much opposed that he went to 
Antwerp. When the New Testament was 
finished many copies were taken to England 
and were eagerly bought. Henry VIII sent 
spies to find out where Tyndale was hidden. 
He was arrested and imprisoned. The English 



54 

merchants in Antwerp tried to have him set 
free, but he was tried, condemned, and burnt 
at the stake. His last words were, '' O Lord, 
open the King of England's eyes." This 
prayer was soon answered, for the tyrant soon 
ordered that the Bible should be placed in 
every church in England for the free use of 
the people, 

Tyndale was assisted in his translation by 
a friar, named William Roy, and by Miles 
Coverdale. 

This Bible was revised by Coverdale. It 
was called Cromwell's Bible in 1539, and Cran- 
mer's Bible in 1 540. It was also used in Scot- 
land and parts of Ireland. In 161 1 it was 
revised by order of King James II, and this 
was the Bible brought to America by the 
Pilgrim Fathers. 

Another revision by English and American 
scholars was completed in 1 884. 

No other book has had so great an influence 
on our English language and literature as the 
Bible. 

7. A Brief Survey of Scottish Literature. . 

We have now reached the period where 
what is called Elizabethan literature begins ; 
but, before taking this up, we should at least 
glance at the literature of Scotland. 

Scottish literature is very much like English 
literature ; for the people in the southern part 



55 

of Scotland are descended, like the English, 
from the Angles and Saxons, although those in 
the northern portion of Scotland are descended 
from the Celtic inhabitants of Britain before 
the Saxons came. The Celts and the Saxons, 
however, became mingled in Scotland more 
than in England, so that there is more of the 
Celtic element in the Scottish people and in 
their literature than in the English. This 
Celtic element makes the Scottish people more 
passionate, dashing, and witty than the Eng- 
lish, who are apt to be more sober or sad ; and 
these differences are seen in their literature. 



8. The Patriotic Element in Scottish Poetry. 

At the time when modern Scottish literature 
arose, Scotland was fighting fiercely against 
England to preserve her national independence. 
The brave deeds of her heroes naturally formed 
the chief theme of her poets. Every mountain, 
valley, lake, and wood became almost sacred, 
especially such as had been the scene of strug- 
gle against the invaders. So the poets of 
Scotland for centuries, from Dunbar to Walter 
Scott, have sung of Scottish heroes and Scottish 
liberty. 

p. The Scottish Dialect. 

Most of the Scottish poets have written in 
dialect. This is English, but not exactly the 
same as that used in England. It is the form 



56' . 

of English that was developed in separation 
from that spoken in England, and modified by 
various causes. 

When people did not mingle much together, 
each county of England had its own dialect, 
that seemed strange to a person of another 
county, and, even now, the people living in 
different parts of our own country have a 
dialect, so that the New England " Yankee " 
is easily known by his speech from the native 
of New York or Pennsylvania. 

In Scotland, also, the early writers of poetry 
in their dislike of England, when they wanted 
a new word to express their meaning, chose a 
Latin or a French word, rather than a word 
used in England. 

10. Early Scottish Poetry, Barbour {ij26-ijg6). 

Modern English poetry, as we have seen, 
began with Chaucer in the latter part of the 
fourteenth century. This is also the period of 
the birth of Scottish poetry. It began with 
John Barbour, Archbishop of Aberdeen. His 
long poem, The Bruce, consists of between 
twelve and thirteen thousand lines. It tells of 
the earnest struggle of the Scotch, under the 
gallant Bruce, against the English. Barbour is 
•not equal to Chaucer, but he stands above all 
other English poets for a century and a half. 

Many of the words Barbour used are now 
obsolete, but his thoughts are still fresh. Here 



57 



is a quotation, the words being changed to 
modern English. After describing the slavery 
to which Scotland was subjected by Edward I, 
he thus speaks of freedom : 

" Ah ! freedom is a noble thing, , 

And can to life a relish bring ; 
Freedom all solace to man gives ; 
He lives at ease that freely lives. 
A noble heart may have no ease, 
Nor aught beside that may it please 
If freedom fail — for 'tis the choice 
More than the chosen man enjoys. 
Ah, he that ne'er hath lived in thrall, 
Knows not the weary pains which gall 
The limbs, the soul, of him who plains 
In slavery's foul and festering chains. 
If these he knew, I ween right soon 
He would seek back the precious boon 
Of freedom, which he then would prize 
More than all wealth beneath the skies." 

//. Scottish Poets of the Fifteentli Century. 

The best English poetry in the first half of 
the fifteenth century was produced in Scotland, 
although none of it is of the highest order. 

James I of Scotland {ijg^-i^jy). 

The best poet of his day was King James I 
of Scotland. At ten years of age Prince James 
was made prisoner by Henry IV of England, 
and was held for nineteen years. But, though 
keeping him prisoner, Henry gave him the 
best possible education for those times. The 



I 



58 

prince read Chaucer, and wrote a poem in 
imitation of him, which he called The Kings 
Quire, or Book. In it he describes his love for 
King Henry's niece. Lady Jane Beaufort, 
whom he first saw walking in the garden of 
Windsor Castle, as he looked out of the window 
in the Round Tower, and who afterwards 
became his wife. The poem consists of one 
hundred and ninety-seven verses of seven lines 
each. 

Robert Henry son. 

Another imitator of Chaucer was Robert 
Henryson, a schoolmaster of Dunfermline. 
He made poems of ^sop's Fables, besides 
writing original poems on various subjects. 

12. Scottish Poetry of the Sixteenth Century. 

Three Scottish poets of the sixteenth century 
deserve especial mention, Dunbar, Douglas, 
and Lyndsay. 

William Dunbar {i/f66-i^jd). 

William Dunbar, the best writer of English 
poetry in his time, was at first an imitator of 
Chaucer, but he soon ceased to be an imitator, 
and wrote strong original poetry of a wide 
range, including serious and comic song. For 
strength and fertility of imagination Dunbar 
is even superior to Burns. His poem. No 

Treasure without Gladness, is a gem. 
Here are the first and the last stanzas : 



59 

" Be merry, man ! and take not sore in mind, 

The wavering of this wretched world of sorrow ! 
To God be humble and to thy friend be kind, 

And with thy neighbors gladly lend and borrow. 
His chance to-night, it may be thine to-morrow. 

Be blithe in heart for any adventure, 
For oft with wisdom it has been said before, 

Without gladness avails no treasure. 

Though all the wealth that ever had living wight 

Were thine alone, no more thy part does fall, 
But meat, drink, clothes, and of the rest a sight ! 

Yet to the Judge thou shalt give count of all. 
One reckoning right comes of each action small. 

Be just and joyous, and do no one injure, 
And truth shall make thee strong as any wall : 

Without gladness avails no treasure. 

Sir David Lindsay. 

The last Scottish poet of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, whom we need mention, was Sir David 
Lindsay, also a learner in the school of Chaucer. 
Lindsay was a favorite of the accomplished but 
unfortunate James V. He was not only a poet, 
but, also, a reformer, for with fine satire he 
attacked the abuses in the Church and helped 
to bring about the Reformation that took place 
in 1557 in Scotland. 






CHAPTER V. 

/. Elizabethan Literature. First Period. 

The reign of Queen Elizabeth (15 59-1603) 
was a time of remarkable advancement and 
productiveness in English literature, but what 
is called Elizabethan literature continued into 
the reign of James I, and was then most pro- 
ductive. 

The first twenty years of Elizabeth's reign 
was really a time of preparation, during which 
there was an abundance of inferior literature 
in poetry and prose. Many translations were 
made from the classical writers of Greece and 
Rome. Histories of the nation, and descrip- 
tions of the manners of the times were written. 
Tales and ballads were collected and eagerly 
read. Travelers, following the new paths of 
commerce, visited strange lands, and wrote of 
the queer monsters and fierce savages seen 
there. Accounts of the voyages of Drake and 
Frobisher were published. Great numbers of 
masques, pageants, and plays were produced, 
for, whenever the Queen made a journey, or 
visited a university or the castle of a nobleman, 
some writer produced a masque, or a pageant, 
or a play. These were acted before the people, 

(60) 



6i 

who thus became interested in dramatic exhi- 
bitions. Many of these masques represented 
Bible stories, and in this way the people were 
educated in religious history. Some writers, 
through searching the literature of other na- 
tions, became fine scholars. 

Thomas Sackville {i^j6~i6o8). 

The best poem of the first period of Eliza- 
bethan literature was the Mirror for Magistrates 
by Thomas Sackville, who afterwards became a 
distinguished statesman. This poem was in- 
tended to be a narrative of the lives of famous 
historical persons from William the Conqueror 
to the end of the wars of the Roses (1066- 148 5). 
Sackville wrote the introduction and one tale, 
but was then obliged to assign the task to other 
hands. Seven other poets wrote tales for it, 
but Sackville's portion is the only one of any 
value. 

A prose work of this period, John Foxes Book 
of Martyrs was eagerly read by the common 
people. 

2: The Later Elizabethan Literature {^i^y^-1602). 

In 1579, a singular work called the Euphues, 
appeared. The author was John Lyly, a poet 
and dramatist. The Euphues was a prose work 
in two parts. It was full of affectation, bom- 
bast, and pedantry, but was very popular for a 
time, and the style was aped by the fine ladies 
of Elizabeth's court. 



62 

Sir Philip Sidney {i^^^-i^86). 

Sir Philip Sidney was not only one of the 
most accomplished courtiers of his time, but 
also a famous author. He was a nephew of 
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. He entered 
Oxford at thirteen, and, after graduating, trav 
eled abroad. He was in Paris at the time of 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew and narrowly 
escaped being a victim. Returning to England 
at the age of twenty-one, he was offered the 
crown of Poland, but Queen Elizabeth was un- 
willing to let him leave England, lest she 
should lose the jewel of her court. In 1586, 
however, she sent him to help the Netherlands 
against their Spanish invaders, and in this 
enterprise he lost his life. In a battle near 
Zutphen, Sidney's horse was shot under him. 
He mounted another, but soon received a 
wound in the thigh, which caused his death 
several days later. As he was being borne from 
the field, he asked for water to quench his 
thirst. It was brought to him, but as he was 
about to drink, he noticed a poor soldier, mor- 
tally wounded, looking wistfully at it. Sidney 
immediately handed the water to him, saying, 
*' Thy necessity is greater than mine." All 
England mourned the loss of such a gallant 
and accomplished gentleman. His remains 
were conveyed to England and buried in old 
St. Paul's Cathedral. 

Sidney's chief literary work consisted of the 



63 

Arcadia, the Defence of Poesy, — both in prose, — 
and some sonnets. The Arcadia is a pastoral 
romance. The scene is laid in Arcadia, a 
province of Greece. The chief characters are 
two young men, Musidorus and Pyrocles, who, 
joined together in a firm friendship, go forth 
in search of adventure. After killing many 
monsters and giants, they set sail for Greece. 
Their ship is wrecked and Musidorus is thrown 
upon the coast. He is found by two shepherds, 
who lead him to Kalander, a wealthy inhabit- 
ant of Arcadia. Musidorus is charmed at the 
beauty of the place. Lambs are skipping in 
the meadow ; a shepherd boy is piping, free 
from care ; and a shepherdess sings sweetly 
while she knits. A few days after the arrival 
of Musidorus, Pyrocles, his companion, appears. 
Prince Kalander has two beautiful daughters, 
with whom, of course, the two young men fall 
in love, and after various trials of their affec- 
tions the young men and the princesses are 
married. 

TJie Defence of Poesy is a beautiful essay, in 
which Sidney shows the value of poetry above 
all other arts and sciences. 

Sidney's collection of sonnets is called A stro- 
phe I and Stella. AstropJiel is Sidney himself, and 
Stella is Lady Penelope Devereux, whom he in- 
tensely loved ; but she married some one else. 
Sidney was the best prose writer of his time. 



64 

Thomas Nash. 

Thomas Nash was a brilliant writer of pam- 
phlets in the latter part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Under the name of Martin Mar-Prelate 
he poured forth a rushing torrent of wit and 
ridicule against the Puritans. He also had a 
great controversy with Gabriel Harvey, a 
scholar and writer. Finally, the Archbishop 
of Canterbury ordered that all the books of both 
Nash and Harvey should be seized and that no 
more should be printed. 

Richard Hooker {i^^j-i6o6). 

One of the most learned and distinguished 
prose writers of his time was Rev. Richard 
Hooker. His Ecclesiastical Polity was a defence 
of the Church of England against the Puritans. 

Writing of the necessity and majesty of Law, 
he says : 

''Of Law, this must be acknowledged, that 
her seat is in the bosom of God ; her voice, the 
harmony of the world. All things in heaven 
and earth do her homage; the very least as 
feeling her care, and the greatest as not ex- 
empted from her power. Both angels and men 
and all creatures, though in different sort and 
manner, admire her as the mother of their 
peace and joy." 

John Donne {i^yj-idji). 

Donne, during life, was popular as a poet, 
but he is now chiefly valued for his prose writ- 



65 

ings. He was also a preacher. He writes thus 
of the Psalms : 

^' The Psalms are the manna of the Church. 
As manna tasted to every man like that he 
liked best, so do the Psalms minister instruc- 
tion and satisfaction to every man in every 
emergency and on every occasion. David was 
not only a prophet of Christ himself, but a 
prophet of every particular Christian : he fore- 
tells what I — what any shall do, and suffer, and 
say. And, as the whole Book of Psalms is an 
ointment poured out upon all sorts of sores, so 
there are some particular Psalms that are impe- 
rial ; that spread themselves over all occasions ; 
that apply themselves to all necessities." 

Francis Bacon (^1^61-1626'). 

Francis Bacon, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, 
keeper of the Great Seal under Elizabeth, grad- 
uated at Cambridge when only seventeen years 
of age. In 1590, the queen appointed him her 
chief counselor. By James I he was made 
keeper of the Great Seal, but he afterwards fell 
into disgrace, and lost both his high office and I 

his good name for accepting bribes. He was || 

heavily fined, and imprisoned in the Tower. || 

Bacon, however, was probably the greatest jlj 

philosopher that ever lived. He was also a 
great writer. His intellect was clear and pro- | 

found; his imagination daring and brilliant; 
his eloquence magnificent. 
4 



66 

Some of Bacon's most important works are, 
Civil and Moral Essays, The Advancement of 
Learning, The Wisdom of the Ancients, and the 
Novum Organuin, or. Method of Studying the Sci- 
ences. Some foolish enthusiasts of modern times 
have tried to prove that Bacon wrote the plays 
of Shakespeare. 

Edmu7td Spenser {1^^2-i^gg). 

Edmund Spencer is the chief poet of the 
later Elizabethan period.* He was born in Lon- 
don and educated at Cambridge. After obtain- 
ing his degree, he lived for a short time in 
Lancashire, where he wrote his Shepherds Cal- 
endar. He then went to London, and through 
the Earl of Leicester he became acquainted 
with the earl's nephew, Philip Sidney, who 
helped him to prepare the Shepherd's Calendar 
for the press. This work proved Spenser to be 
the first poet of the day. It was so fresh and 
musical that men felt that a poet had arisen as 
original as Chaucer. 

The Shepherd's Calendar consisted of twelve 
parts, each named after a month of the year. 
In some of these parts he told of his early love 
for a fair lady of Lancashire ; two were fables ; 
three were satires on the lazy clergy of the day ; 
one was in praise of Queen Elizabeth ; and the 
others told of the joys of country life. 

In the summer of 1580 Spenser went to 
Ireland as secretary to Lord Grey. He after- 



~m 




^^ /0^ 




EDMUND SPENSER. 



6; 

wards received a grant of 3,000 acres of land 
there, probably through the influence of his 
friend Sidney. While living at the castle of 
Kilcolman, he wrote the first three books of the 
Fairy Queen, and here he was visited by Sir 
Walter Raleigh, to whom he read his new poem. 
Raleigh persuaded Spenser to return with him 
to England and publish it. While in England 
Raleigh introduced Spenser to Queen Eliza- 
beth, who was delighted with the poem and 
gave the poet a pension of £^0. 

This great poem filled all England with de- 
light. In 1595 three more books of the Fairy 
Queen appeared. The whole poem is an alle- 
gory in which King Arthur sees in a vision 
Glorianna, the Fairy Queen, or Queen Eliza- 
beth. Each of Arthur's knights stands for 
some virtue, such as Holiness, Temperance, 
Chastity, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy. 

Spenser wrote many smaller poems, among 
them being Mother Hubbard's Tale, The Ruins 
of Time, and Hymns on Love aiid Beauty. His 
Epithalamium, or Marriage Hymn, is called the 
most glorious love-song in the English lan- 
guage. 

The close of Spenser's life was sad. In 1598 
the Earl of Tryone rebelled against English 
rule. Kilcolman Castle was sacked and burned. 
By an oversight, one of the poet's children was 
left in the house and perished in the flames. 
Spenser and his family fled to England, but he 



68 

was now poor and broken-hearted. He died at 
the age of forty-five in a London tavern, and 
was buried near Chaucer in Westminster 
Abbey. 

Here is a selection from Book H of the Fairy 
Queeyi : 

THE CARE OF ANGELS OVER MEN. 

And is there care in heaven? and is there love 

In heavenly spirits to these creatures base 
That may compassion of their evils move ? 

There is : else much more wretched were the case 
Of men than beasts : But O ! the exceeding grace 

Of highest God that loves His creatures so, 
And all His works with mercy doth embrace, 

That blessed angels He sends to and fro, 
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe ! 

How oft do they their silver bowers leave 

To come to succor us that succor want ! 
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave 

The yielding skies like flying pursuivant, 
Against foul fiends to aid us militant ! 

They for us fight, they watch and duly guard 
And their bright squadrons round about us plant ; 

And all for love and nothing for reward : 
O, why should Heavenly God to men have such 
regard ! 

J. Translations. 

The work of translating the literature of 
other languages into English was continued 
into the later Elizabethan period. Three 
names stand high above the rest for special ex- 
cellence in it. 



69 

John Harrington, in 1591, translated the Or- 
lando Furioso of the Italian poet Ariosto. 

Edward Fairfax, in 1600, translated Tasso's 
Jerusalem Delivered. This work is called one of 
the glories of Elizabeth's reign. 

But the best work in this line was that of 
George Chapman, the dramatist, who translated 
Homer s Odyssey from the Greek in 1598. This 
translation was exceedingly delicate and beau- 
tiful, and full of original poetic genius. It was 
greatly admired by Charles Lamb and Keats, 
in their day. 

/J.. Religious Poetry. 

During this period, numbers of men were 
filled with the religious zeal of the time, and 
wrote for or against the changes caused by the 
Reformation. Among these was Robert South- 
well, a Jesuit priest, who warmly upheld the 
old form of religion. Among other things he 
wrote St. Peter s Complaint, and Mary Magdalen s 
Tears. Southwell was persecuted for his relig- 
ious views. After being imprisoned for three 
years, he was racked several times and finally 
executed. An extract from his fine poem Con- 
tent and Rich, will give an idea of his quality : — 

My conscience is my crown ; 

Contented thoughts my rest ; 
My heart is happy in itself, 

My bliss is in my breast. 



70 

My wishes are but few. 

All easy to fulfil ; 
I make the limits of my power 

The bounds unto my will. 

I have no care for gold, 

Well-doing is my wealth ; 
My mind to me an empire is 

While grace affordeth health. 

I clip high-climbing thoughts, 
The wings of swelling pride ; 

Their fall is worst that from the height 
Of greatest honor slide. 

Since sails of largest size 
The storm doth soonest tear, 

I bear so low and small a sail 
As freeth me from fear. 

I wrestle not with rage 

While fury's flame doth bum. 

It is in vain to stop the stream. 
Until the tide doth turn. 

But when the flame is out, 

And ebbing wrath doth end, 
I turn a late enraged foe 

Into a quiet friend. 

5. Patriotic Poets. 

The reign of Elizabeth was a time of great 
national pride and glory. England took the 
first place among the nations of Europe. She 
had beaten France and Spain, and her poets 
freely sang her praise. 

In 1586, William Warner wrote Albion s Eng- 



i! 



7^ 

land, a history of England from the Deluge to 
Elizabeth's reign. This is a bright and humor- 
ous work of 10,000 lines, and for twenty years 
it was very popular. 

The following passage is a sample of War- 
ner's style. After speaking of Caesar's victory 
over the Britons, he says : \ 

But he that won in every war, at Rome in civil robe \ 

Was stabbed to death ; no certainty is there upon this \ 

globe ; I 

The good are envied of the bad, and glory finds disdain, 
And people are in constancy as April is in rain ; 
Whereof, amidst our serious pen, this fable entertain : — 
An Ass, and Old Man, and a Boy did through the city 

pass ; 
And, whilst the wanton Boy did ride, the Old Man led 

the Ass. 
See yonder doting fool, said folk, that scarce can crawl 

for age, 
Doth set the boy upon his ass, and make himself his 

page. 
Anon the blamed Boy alights, and lets the Old Man ^ 

ride. 
And, as the Old Man did before, the Boy the Ass did 

guide. 
But, passing so, the people then did much the Old 

Man blame. 
And told him. Churl, thy limbs be tough, let the boy % 

ride, for shame. 
The fault thus found, both Man and Boy did back the' 

ass and ride. 
Then, that the ass was overcharged, each man that. 

met them cried. 



■ 7^ 

Now both alight, and go on foot and lead the empty 

beast ; 
But then the people laugh, and say that one might 

ride at least. 
The Old Man, seeing by no ways he could the people 

please, 
Not blameless then, did drive the ass and drown it in 

the seas. 
Thus, whilst we be it will not be that any pleaseth all ; 
Else had been wanting, worthily, the noble Caesar's 

fall. 

Samuel Daniel 1(1562-1619) wrote a history of 
the Civil Wars between tJie Houses of York and 
Lancaster. Spencer calls Daniel '' a shepherd 
of poetry who did far surpass the others " ; and 
Coleridge admired him. Speaking of writing, 
Daniel says: 

" This is the thing that I was born to do, 
This is my scene, this part must I fulfil." 

In another place he says of Man : 

" Unless above himself he can 
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man! " 

William Drtunmond {i^8j-i6/j.g). 

William Drummond was the first Scotch poet 
that wrote well in English. He wrote both re- 
ligious and love poetry, and for quality he 
stands next to Spencer and Shakespeare. A 
good specimen of his work is found in 



73 

THE PRAISE OF A SOLITARY LIFE: 

Thrice happy he who by some shady grove, 

Far from the clamorous world doth live his own ; 

Though solitary, who is not alone. 
But doth converse with that eternal Love, 

O ! how more sweet is bird's harmonious moan 
Or the hoarse sobbings of the widowed dove, 

Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's . , : 

throne, {| 

Which good make doubtful, do the evil approve : ; | 

O ! how more sweet is zephyr's wholesome breath, 1 1 

And sighs embalmed, which new-born flowers unfold, ■ J 

Than that applause vain honor doth bequeath ! - f 

How sweet are streams to poison drank in gold ! 

The world is full of horrors, troubles, slights : 

Woods' harmless shaaes have only true delights. 



!!' 



CHAPTER VI. 

I. The English Drama. 

In England, as in Greece, the drama began 
in religion. In early times only the clergy 
could read the Bible, and it was necessary to 
instruct the common people in religious knowl- 
edge. So the Church started Miracle Plays 
which represented some portion of the Old or 
New Testament history, or the life of some 
martyr or saint. Some of the subjects were. 
The Creation, The Fall of Man, The Flood, Abra- 
ham's Sacrifice, etc. We first find Miracle 
Plays in England in mo. In Chaucer's day 
they were very common. They were generally 
written by clergymen, and were acted both by 
the clergy and the laity. They were exhibited 
in abbeys, churches, and church-yards, on Sun- 
days and holidays. 

After a time, in the second half of the thir- 
teenth century, the town guilds or trading 
companies began to give annual exhibitions of 
Miracle Plays at their own expense. These ex-, 
hibitions lasted from three to eight days, and 
were set forth on a great movable stage on 
wheels in the open spaces of the towns. 

The Mystery Play was similar to the Miracle 

(74) 



. 75 

Play ; but was a representation of some part of 
the New Testament, not easy to understand, 
sucli as the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the 
Resurrection. 

The Moral Plays grew out of the Miracle 
Plays, and are traced back to about 1430 when 
Henry VI was king. The characters in the 
Moral Plays were allegorical, representing not 
historical persons, but the Vices and Virtues. 

These religious plays seem to have been 
acted down to the end of the sixteenth century, 
but, as early as 1525, they began to give place 
to the first attempts at regular drama with its 
two branches. Tragedy and Comedy. 

Heywood' s Interludes. 

Although the Moral Plays were better than 
the Miracle Plays, they were very dull. The 
only scriptural character in them and the only 
funny one was the Devil, who was made as 
grotesque and hideous as possible with a 
shaggy coat and long tail. About 1525 John 
Heywood began to write what are called 
Interludes or plays, in which the characters 
were drawn from real Hfe. The Interlude 
occupied a middle place between the old 
Miracle Plays and modern drama, and may be 
called the first specimens of English comedy. 
Heywood was a native of London, and of a gay 
and festive disposition. He was a favorite of 



Henry VIII, and wrote most of his interludes 
for presentation at court. 

One of Heywood's Interludes is called A 
Merry Play between the Pardoner and the Friar, 
the Curate and neighbor Pratt. Tlie story runs 
thus: 

A pardoner and a friar each obtained leave 
of a curate to use his church, one to exhibit his 
relics and the other to preach a sermon, the 
object of both being to obtain money. The 
friar arrives first and is about to begin his ser- 
mon, when the pardoner enters and disturbs 
him. Each wishes to be heard, and, after try- 
ing to shout each other down, they proceed to 
kick and cuff one another unmercifully. The 
curate, hearing the disturbance, rushes to the 
church and tries, in vain, to part the combat- 
ants. He then calls in his neighbor, Pratt, to 
help him. The curate seizes the friar, and 
Pratt lays hold of the pardoner, intending to 
put them in the stocks ; but the friar and the 
pardoner are toe much for the curate and his 
neighbor, and give them a sound drubbing, 
then go on their way. 

Udair s Roister Doister. 

The first regular English comedy, so far as 
we know, was Ralph Roister Dotster, written 
before 155 1 by Nicholas Udall, master of Eton. 
It gives a picture of London life and manners. 



77 

It is divided into acts and scenes, and required 
about two hours and a half in presentation. 

Sackvilles Gorboduc. 

Gorboduc, the first English tragedy, was by 
Sackville, the author of the Mirror for Magis- 
trates. It was presented in 1362. The story is 
taken from British legends. As in other plays 
of the time, each act of the Gorboduc was pre- 
ceded by what was called the Dumb Show, in 
which the story that was to follow was shadowed 
forth in pantomine. 

Richard Edwards, 

About 1564 Richard Edwards produced a 
play called Damon and Pythias. It was acted 
before Queen Elizabeth at Christ Church, Ox- 
ford. From this time a great number of 
dramas appeared in quick succession. Most of 
them were written by learned men and were 
acted at the Universities and at court. 

2. The Theater. 

The earliest plays were acted out of doors, 
for there were no theaters in England till 1576. 
Then the servants of the Earl of Leicester, 
who had permission to act plays in any town in 
England, built the Blackfriars Theater in Lon- 
don. Other theaters soon followed. The 
Globe Theater, built for Shakespeare and his 
fellow actors in 1599, is thus described.^ "In 



* English Literature, by Rev. Stopford Brooke, M.A. 



78 

the form of a hexagon outside, it was circular 
within and open to the weather, except above 
the stage. The play began at three o'clock ; 
the nobles and ladies sat in boxes or on stools 
on the stage ; the people stood in the pit or 
yard. The stage itself, strewn with rushes, was 
a naked room with a blanket for a curtain. 
Wooden imitations of animals, towers, woods, 
etc., were all the scenery used, and a board 
stating the place of action was hung out from 
the top when the scene changed. Boys acted 
the female parts. It was only after the Restor- 
ation (1660) that movable scenery and actresses 
were introduced. No pencil's aid supplied the 
landscape of Shakespeare's plays. The forest of 
Arden and the castle of Duncan were seen only 
by the intellectual eye." 

J. Second Period of the Regular Drmna {1^80- 

159^)' 

Although many dramatic pieces were pro- 
duced in England before 1580, few of them are 
now considered of any special value. But from 
that time England produced a crowd of drama- 
tists of the first order, who placed her at the 
head of the world in this sort of literature. 

The three important names of the second pe- 
riod are Peele, Greene, and Marlowe. 

Christopher Marlowe was the best English 
dramatic writer before Shakespeare. " Each 
play," says Mr. Brooke, "illustrates one ruling 



79 

passion, in its growth, its power, and its ex- 
tremes. Tamburlaine paints the desire of nni^ 
versal empire ; the Jew of Malta, the passions 
of greed and hatred ; Doctor Faust us, the strug- 
gle and failure of man to possess all knowledge 
and all pleasure without toil and without law ; 
Edward II, the misery of weakness and the ag- 
ony of a king's ruin." 

Marlowe is the author of a beautiful song en- 
titled 

A PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE. 

Come live with me and be my love, 
And we will all the pleasures prove 
That grove or valley, hill or field, 
Or wood and sleepy mountain yield. 
Where we will sit on rising rocks, 
And see the shepherds feed their flocks 
By shallow rivers, to whose falls 
Melodious birds sing madrigals. 
Pleased will I make thee beds of roses, 
And twine a thousand fragrant posies; 
A cap of flowers and rural kirtle 
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle. 
A jaunty gown of finest wool, 
Which from our pretty lambs we pull ; 
And shoes lined choicely for the cold. 
With buckles of the purest gold: 
A belt of straw and ivy buds, 
With coral clasps and amber studs; 
If these, these pleasures can thee move, 
Come live with me and be my love. 



8o 

William Shakespeare {1^6^-1616). 

William Shakespeare, the world's greatest 
dramatic poet, was born at Stratford-on-Avon. 
We know very little about his early life, edu- 
cation, personal appearance, and habits. 
Strangely enough, no letter of his is known to 
exist. His father was well-to-do, but fell into 
poverty while William "was still young. Wil- 
liam was sent for a short time to the free school 
at Stratford, and is reported to have learned lit- 
tle Latin and less Greek, but he was afterwards 
a great master of English. It is thought that 
in youth he was wild and passionate. There 
is a story of his stealing deer in Charlecote 
woods, owned by Sir Thomas Lucy. It is said 
that William was caught by the keepers, kept 
a prisoner all night, and brought before Sir 
Thomas, who was a justice of the peace, the 
next morning. What punishment was inflicted 
we do not know. 

At nineteen years of age Shakespeare was 
married to Anne Hathaway of Shottery, a vil- 
lage about a mile from Stratford. At the age 
of twenty-two he went to London, and, on get- 
ting acquainted with Marlowe, Greene, and 
other actors, he became himself an actor and 
playwright. In 1589 he is mentioned as one of 
the proprietors of Blackfriars Theatre. He 
seems to have been an actor, more or less, for 
seventeen years, but meanwhile he was busy 
touching up old plays and writing new ones. 



r ■ ■ • 


1 


^^^^4 ^B 


2,,^^^^'->" 


^^^^F 


'^ 


:i^^ 


^" 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



I 



8i 

He soon became famous, but did not escape 
professional jealousy. Greene says of him: 
"There is an upstart crow beautified with our 
feathers, that, Avith his tiger's heart wrapped in 
a player's hide, supposes that he is as well able 
to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you, 
and is, in his owm conceit, the only Skake-^cene 
in the country." Shakespeare survived the 
sneer, and Greene is nearly forgotten. 

Shakespeare's early plays and poems were 
full of the glow of passion and the fire of youth. 
Among these may be mentioned The Comedy 
of Errors, Loves Labors Lost, Two Gentlemen of 
Verona, Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labors Won, AlTs 
Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Nighfs 
Dream; also the poems, Venus and Adonis, and 
the Rape of Lucrece. 

About 1593 he began to write the series of 
historical plays, such as RicJiard II, Richard III, 
King J oJ in, Henry IV, Henry VL 

Following these came the plays in which he 
showed his deep insight into the human heart 
and his perfect mastery of the dramatic art, both 
in tragedy and comedy. Among the works of 
this sort are The Merchant of Venice, Taming 
of the Shrezv, Merry Wives of Windsor, Much 
Ado About Nothing, As You Like It. 

Shakespeare's later work changed with the 
misfortunes that befell him, and he became 
more sad. He had grown wealthy and famous. 
He had powerful friends, including Queen 



82 

Elizabeth and various noblemen. He had pur- 
chased New Place, the best house in Stratford, 
with more than a hundred acres of ground. 
But his life suddenly grew dark. His best 
friends fell into ruin. He now wrote of the 
sterner side of life, and produced such works 
as Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and 
King Lear. 

In 1 612 Shakespeare returned to spend the 
remainder of his days in his native town, and 
died there in 161 6 at the age of fifty-two. 

His widow survived him seven years. He 
had three children, one son and two daughters. 
The boy, Hamnet, died young ; the daughters 
grew up and were married, and one of them 
had three sons, but there are now no lineal 
descendants of the poet. 

The genius of Shakespeare has made Strat- 
f ord-on-Avon more distinguished than any other 
place of its size in the modern world. The 
house in which he was born still stands and has 
been visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims 
from all lands, especially from America. When 
the late P. T. Barnum proposed to buy it and 
convey it to the United States, England be- 
came aroused, and, in 1847, the Shakespeare 
house was purchased by the nation. Anne 
Hatheway's cottage is also still standing. 

The remains of Shakespeare were buried 
close by the altar in Trinity Church. A fiat 



83 

stone marks the spot on which, is his epitaph, 
supposed to have been written by himself -. 

Good friend, for Jesus sake forbear 

To dig the dust enclosed here. 

Blest be the man that spares these stones, 

And curst be he that moves my bones. 

On the wall, above the grave, is the monu- 
ment erected within seven years after Shakes- 
peare's death. It consists of a half length 
effigy and a tablet between two Corinthian 
columns of black marble. In front of the 
effigy is a cushion upon which both the hands 
rest, holding a scroll and pen. The pen was 
formerly of stone, but, toward the end of the 
eighteenth century, an Oxford student, in 
handling it, dropped it on the pavement and 
broke it. A quill pen was put in its place. 
Above the tablet are Shakespeare's armorial 
bearings, and over them is a death's head, and 
on each side sits a carved cherub, one holding 
a spade, the other an inverted torch. 

The inscription beneath the bust reads : 

Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast ? 
Read, if thou canst, whom envious Death hath placed 
Within this monument : Shakspeare : with whom 
Quick Nature died ; whose name doth deck the tomb 
Far more than cost ; since all he hath writ 
Leaves living art but page to serve his wit. 

New Place, where Shakespeare died, was 
afterwards owned by Rev. Francis Gastrell, 
who cut down vShakespeare's mulberry tree, 



84 

because strangers used to come and sit under 
it ; and pulled down the house because he was 
obliged to pay a tax on it. 

Here is a famous passage from Shakes- 
peare : 

All the world's a stage 
And all the men and women merely players ; 
They have their exits and their entrances ; 
And one man in his time plays many parts, 
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant 
Mewhng and puking in the nurse's arms : 
And then, the whining school-boy with his satchel. 
And shining morning face, creeping like the snail 
UnwiUingly to school : And then the lover ; 
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad 
Made to his mistress' eyebrow : Then a soldier j 
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, 
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, 
Seeking the bubble reputation 

Even in the cannon's mouth : And then the Justice ; 
In fair, round belly, with good capon lined, 
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut. 
Full of wise saws and modern instances, 
And so he plays his part : The sixth age shifts 
Into the lean and slvp^eredi pantaloon, 
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side ; 
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide 
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice. 
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes 
And whistles in his sound : Last scene of all, 
That ends this strange eventful history. 
Is secofid childishness, and mere oblivion : 
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 
As You Like It, Act II, Sce?te vii. 



8s 

Here is Cardinal Wolsey's soliloquy after 
his fall from the favor of Henry VHI : 

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness ! 
This is the state of man ; to-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope ; to-morrow blossoms, . 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him : 
The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a ripening — nips his root, 
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured 
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, 
This many summers in a sea of glory ; 
But far beyond my depth : my high blown pride 
At length broke under me ; and now has left me. 
Weary and old with service, to the mercy 
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. 
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye ; 
I feel my heart new opened : O, how wretched 
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors ! 

Henry VIII, Act III, Scene it. 

Life and Death Weighed. 

To be, or not to be, that is the question : 
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 
Or take up arms against a sea of troubles, 
And by opposing, end them ? To die — to sleep — 
No more ; and by a sleep to say we end 
The heart ache, and the thousand natural shocks 
That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation 
Devoutly to be wished. To die, — to sleep ; — 
To sleep ! perchance to dream ; ay, there's the rub ; 
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. 
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
Must give us pause : There's the respect 



86 

That makes calamity of so long life : 
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time 
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay. 
The insolence of office and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes 
When he himself might his quietus make 
With a bare bodkin ? Who would fardels bear, 
To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 
But that the dread of something after death. 
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn 
No traveler returns, — puzzles the will. 
And makes us rather bear the ills we have. 
Than fly to others that we know not of ? 
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, 
And thus the native hue of resolution 
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. 
And enterprises of great pith and moment 
With this regard, their currents turn awry, 
And lose the name of action. 

Hamlci:, Act III, Scene i. 

^. Masques. ~ 

Near the end of the sixteenth century and 
the beginning of the seventeenth, the Masque 
was the favorite form of private theatricals. It 
appears to have had its origin in men wearing 
masks in solemn or festive processions to rep- 
resent imaginary or allegorical personages. 
Gradually the masque became a regular dra- 
matic entertainment. It consisted of dialogue, 
music, singing, and dancing, by persons in dis- 
guise. Masques were most brilliant in the 
reigns of James I and Charles 1. They were 



87 

acted at court and in the houses of nobles, and 
great men took part in them. 

Beaumont and Fletcher. 

These names are generally spoken of to- 
gether, for they worked together. They pro- 
duced more than fifty plays and masques, 
which were far inferior to Shakespeare's, though 
their best work is very good. 

Beji Jonson {ij'/^.-iSjf). 

Ben Jonson was the son of a clergyman of 
Westminster. After the death of his father, 
his mother took him from school and put him 
to work with her second husband, a bricklayer. 
Ben, not liking this work, ran away, enlisted in 
the army, and went to the Netherlands. On 
returning to England, he entered Cambridge, 
but lack of means compelled him to leave the 
university. He then found work in a theater. 
After a while he began to write plays, and, 
through industry and genius, became famous. 
He wrote more than fifty dramatic pieces, most 
of which were masques. His four best come- 
dies are, Every Man in his Humor ; The Silent 
Woman ; Volpone the Fox ; and The Alchemist. 

Here is a sample of Ben Jonson's poetry: 

CUPID. 

Beauties, have ye seen this toy, 
Called love ! a little boy 
Almost naked, wanton, blind, 
Cruel now, and then as kind ? 



If he be amongst you, say ! 
He is Venus' run-away. 

He hath marks about him plenty, 
You shall know him among twenty : 
All his body is a fire, 
All his breath a flame entire, 
That, being shot like lightning in, 
Wounds the heart, but not the skin. 

He doth bear a golden bow, 
And a quiver, hanging low. 
Full of arrows that outbrave 
Diana's shafts, where, if he have 
Any head more sharp than other. 
With that first he strikes his mother. 

Trust him not : his words, though sweet, 

Seldom with his heart do meet. 

All his practice is deceit 

Every gift is but a bait : 

Not a kiss but poison bears 

And most treason in his tears. 

If by these ye please to know him 
Beauties, be not nice, but show him. 
Though ye had a will to hide him, 
Now, we hope, ye'll not abide him. 
Since ye hear his falser play 
And that he's Venus' run-away. 

Decline of the Drama. 

After reaching its highest point in Shakes- 
peare, the drama began to decline. There were 
many dramatic writers such as Massinger, Ford, 
Webster, Chapman, Dekker, and a host of others. 



89 

Chapman was the best and James Shirley the 
last. During the civil war between Charles I 
and the Parliament, the theaters were closed 
and, when the Puritans came into power, they 
forbade all theatrical exhibitions by law. At 
the Restoration, dramatic exhibitions were re- 
newed with all their worst features. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Literature of the Seventeenth Century. 

We have said that Elizabethan literature ex- 
tended beyond the reign of Elizabeth into the 
reign of James I, and have noticed the work of 
Lord Bacon, who died in 1626. We must now 
look at the literature of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, outside the drama. 

/. Prose Literature. 
Sir Walter Raleigh {i_Sj2-i6i8). 

Raleigh was one of the most remarkable 
men England has produced. He was a friend 
of Sir Philip Sidney, and with him narrowly 
escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572). 
He fitted out expeditions to the New World, 
and made voyages to Guiana. He was a favor- 
ite courtier of Queen Elizabeth, but with her 
death his fortunes fell. James I imprisoned 
him for twelve years and finally had him be- 
headed. While imprisoned in the Tower, Ral- 
eigh wrote his "History of the World," begin- 
ning with the Creation, and coming down to 
the fall of the Macedonian Empire, 168 B. C. 

Robert Burton {i^yd-idzfo). 

Burton's chief work was the Anatomy of Mel- 
ancholy, one of the most curious books ever 

(90)' 



91 

written. It is a mixture of quotations from 
older writers, with Burton's own opinions and 
reflections. It was very popular in its day, and 
Dr. Johnson, more than a hundred years later, 
declared that it was the only book that ever got 
him out of bed an hour before the usual time. 

Thomas Fuller {1608-1661). 

Fuller was an extraordinary man. His writ- 
ings were quaint and delightful, consisting of 
wit, piety, good sense, and knowledge, woven 
together.' He was a clergyman, and stood by 
the royal cause during the Civil War. His best 
known works are The Holy and Profane State ; 
and Worthies of England. 

Here are a few of Fuller's wise sayings : 

He must rise early, yea, not go to bed at all, 
who will have every one's good word. 

He needs strong arms who is to swim against 
the stream. 

Gravity is the ballast of the soul. 

He shall be immortal who lives till he be 
stoned by one without fault. 

Sir Thomas Browne {160^-1682). 

Sir Thomas Browne was one of the most 
original and learned men of the reign of 
Charles II. He was a physician, and one of his 
best known works is the Religio Medici ; or the 
Religion of a Physician. It is divided into two 
parts ; the first containing his confession of 



92 

faith, or all his religious opinions and feelings ; 
the second a confession of all his human feel- 
ings. His other books are Vulgar Errors and 
Ur7i Burial. 

Isaak Walton {i^gj-i68j). 

The ''Father of Angling/' as Walton is 
called, was born at Stafford, but went to Lon- 
don in early life and carried on the business of 
a linen draper. Having acquired enough means 
for future support, he retired from business at 
the age of fifty and devoted the remaining forty 
years of his life to writing, fishing, and other 
calm pursuits. His chief work, The Complete 
Angler /\^ a charming book, full of the author's 
fine spirit and fresh sympathy with nature. 

The Complete Angler is in the form of a tri- 
alogue between a Falconer, a Hunter, and a 
Fisherman, who happen to meet on a fresh 
May morning near London. Each agrees to 
commend his own favorite recreation to the 
others. 

After the Falconer has spoken in praise of 
the air, .the element in which the birds may fly, 
the Hunter, or Venator, takes his turn, praising 
the earth that brings forth all manner of fruits, 
and supports animals for hunting. Then Pisca- 
tor, who is Walton himself, upholds the value 
of the water, as '' the element upon which the 
spirit of God did first move, and without which 
all creatures must die." He then speaks of the 



93 

great variety of fish in the water, and reminds 
his companions that the apostles, Peter, James, 
and John, were fishermen. Finally, Venator is 
won over and says, " If you will meet me to- 
morrow and spend one day with me hunting 
the otter, I will spend the next two days with 
you, and we will do nothing but angle and talk 
of fish and fishing." This is agreed to. While 
they are angling for trout, Piscator speaks : 

Look ! under that broad beach tree I sat down, 
when I was last this way a fishing, and the 
birds in the adjoining groves seemed to have a 
friendly contention with an echo, whose dead 
voice seemed to live in a hollow tree, near to 
the brow of that primrose hill: there I sat 
viewing the silver streams glide silently to- 
wards their center, the tempestuous sea; yet 
sometimes opposed by rugged roots and peb- 
bles, which broke their waves and turned them 
into foam : and sometimes I beguiled time by 
viewing the harmless lambs, some leaping se- 
curely in the cool shade, whilst others sported 
in the sun. . . . 

As I left this place and entered into the next 
field, a second pleasure entertained me ; it was 
a handsome milkmaid that had not yet attained 
so much age and wisdom as to load her mind 
with fears of many things that will never be, 
as too many men do; but she cast away all 
care, and sung like a nightingale ; her voice 
was good and the ditty fitted for it : it was that 



94 

smooth song, made by Kit Marlow,^ now at 
least fifty years ago ; and tlie milkmaid's moth- 
er sung an answer to it, which was made by Sir 
Walter Raleigh f in his younger days. 

They were old-fashioned poetry, but choicely 
good; I think much better than the strong 
lines that are now in fashion in this critical 
age. Look yonder! on my word, yonder they 
both be, a milking again. I will give her the 
chub, and persuade them to sing those two 
songs to us. 

God speed you, good woman ! I have been a 
fishing and am going to Bleak-Hall to my bed : 
and having caught more fish than will sup my- 
self and my friend, I will bestow this upon you 
and your daughter, for I sell none. 

Milk-woman. Marry, God requite you, sir, 
and we'll eat it cheerfully; and if you come 
this way a fishing two months hence, I'll give 
you a syllabub of new verjuice in a new-made 
haycock for it, and my Maudlin shall sing you 
one of her best ballads ; for she and I both love 
all anglers, they be such honest, civil, quiet 
men : in the meantime will you drink a draught 
of red cow's milk ? You shall have it freely. 

Piscator. No, I thank you ; but I pray you 
do us a courtesy that shall stand you and your 
daughter in nothing, and yet we will think our- 
selves something in your debt : it is but to sing 



* " Come live with me and be my love." 
t " If all the world and love were young.' 



95 

lis a song that was sung by your daughter when 
J last passed over this meadow, about eight or 
nine days since. 

Milk-woman. What song was it, I pray ? Was 
it Come, shepherds, deck your herds? or. As, at noon 
Duicina rested? or, PJiillida flouts me? or, Chevy 
Chase? or, Johnny Armstrong? or, Troy-town? 

Piscator. No, it is none of these. It is a song 
that your daughter sung the first part, and you 
sung the answer to it. 

Milk-woman. Oh, I know it now : I learned 
the first part in my golden age, when T was 
about the age my daughter is now, and the lat- 
ter part, which best fits me now, but two or 
three years ago, when the cares of the world 
began to take hold of me : but you shall hear 
them both, and sung as well as we can ; for we 
both love anglers. Come, Maudlin, sing the 
first part to the gentleman with a merry heart, 
and I'll sing the second when you have done. 

The milk-maid sings 

" Come live with me and be my love," 

then Venator speaks. 

Venator. Trust me, master, it is a choice song 
and sweetly sung by honest Maudlin. I now 
see it was not without cause that our good 
Queen Elizabeth did so often wish herself a 
milkmaid all the month of May, because they 
are not troubled with fears and cares, but sing 
all the day, and sleep securely all the night; 



96 

and without doubt, honest, innocent, pretty 
Maudlin does so. Ill bestow Sir Thomas 
Overbury's milkmaid's wish upon her, "That 
she may die in the spring, and, being dead, may 
have good store of flowers stuck around about 
her winding-sheet." 

Then the mother answers, 

"If all the world and love were young," 

and adds. Well, I have done my song ; but stay, 
honest anglers, for I will make Maudlin sing 
you one short song more. Maudlin, sing that 
song that you sang last night when young 
Corydon, the shepherd, played so purely on his 
oaten pipe to you and your cousin Betty. 
Maudlin, I will, mother. 

"I married a wife of late 

The more's my unhappy fate," etc. 

Piscator. Well sung, good woman: I thank 
you. I'll give you another dish of fish one of 
these days, and then beg another song of you. 
Come, scholar, let Maudlin alone: do not you 
offer to spoil her voice. Look, yonder comes 
my hostess, to call us to supper. How now ! is 
my brother Peter come ? 

Hostess. Yes, and a friend with him, they are 
both glad to hear that you are in these parts, 
and long to see you, and long to be at supper, 
for they be very hungry. 

Here is a beautiful exhortation to Content- 
ment from the mouth of Piscator : 



97 

'' I knew a man that had health and riches, 
and several houses all beautiful and ready 
furnished, and would often trouble himself 
and family to be removing from one house 
to another ; and being asked by a friend why 
he removed so often from one house to an- 
other, replied, " It was to find content in some 
of them." But his friend, knowing his temper, 
told him, that if he would find content in any 
of his houses, he must leave himself behind 
him; for content would never dwell but in a 
meek and quiet soul. . . . The meek shall not 
only obtain mercy, and see God, and be com- 
forted and at last come to the kingdom of 
heaven ; but in the meantime, he, and he only, 
possesses the earth as he goes toward that 
kingdom of heaven, by being humble, and 
cheerful, and content with what his good God 
has allotted him. He has no turbulent, re- 
pining, vexatious thoughts that he deserves 
better; nor is he vexed when he sees others 
possessed of more honor or more riches than 
his wise God has allotted for his share: but 
he possesses what he has with a meek and 
contented quietness, such as makes his very 
dreams pleasing to God and himself." 

Jeremy Taylor {1602-166'/). 

Jeremy Taylor was the son of a barber in 
Cambridge. He graduated at the university 

5* 



and became a clergyman. During the Civil 
War, lie was a chaplain in the royal army. His 
writings are numerous and filled with a spirit 
of charity, toleration, and devotion. His chief 
works are, TJie Liberty of Prophesying, Holy Liv- 
ing, and Holy Dying. His name is in the list of 
illustrious men, who, in spite of poverty, mis- 
fortune, and imprisonment, have enriched man- 
kind. Of prayer he says : 

'' Prayer is the key to open the day and the 
bolt to shut in- the night." 

Of the miseries of life he says : 

'' How few men in the world are prosperous ! 
What an infinite number of slaves and beggars, 
of persecuted and oppressed people, fill all the 
corners of the earth with groans, and heaven 
itself with weeping, prayers, and sad remem- 
brances ! If we could, from one of the battle- 
ments of heaven espy how many men and wo- 
men at this time lie fainting and dying for want 
of bread ; how many young men are hewn down 
by the sword of war ; how many poor orphans 
are now weeping over the graves of their 
father ; if we could but hear how mariners and 
passengers are at this present in a storm,' and 
shriek out because their keel dashes against a 
rock or bulges under them ; how many people 
there are that weep with want, and are mad 
with oppression ; in all reason we should be 
glad to be out of the noise and participation of 
so many evils. This is a place of sorrow and 



99 

tears, of great evils and constant calamity. Let 
us remove from hence, at least, in affections 
and preparation of mind." 

Richard Baxter {i6i^-i6gi). 

One of the most famous theological writers 
of the seventeenth century was Richard Baxter. 
He was a man of great piety. At an early age 
he desired to study for the ministry but was 
prevented by poverty from entering a univer- 
sity. A clergyman, however, gave him a course 
in theology, and Richard was ordained. When 
the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662, en- 
joining every clergyman to give his assent to 
every part of the prayer-book, Baxter was one 
of more than two thousand divines who were 
driven out of the English church as Non-con- 
formists. He was afterwards tried and impris- 
oned by the infamous Judge Jeffries, but was 
finally pardoned. 

Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, and his Call 
to the Unconverted, have been extremely popular 
and useful among all sorts of men. 

Here is an extract from another book, giving 
a narrative of his own life and times : 

'' I now see more good and more evil in all 
men than heretofore I did. I see that good 
men are not so good as I once thought they 
were, but have more imperfections; and that 
nearer approach and fuller trials doth make 
the best appear more weak and faulty than 



lOO 

their admirers at a distance think. And I find 
that few are so bad as malicious enemies do 
imagine. ... I less admire gifts of utterance, 
and bare profession of religion than I once did ; 
and have much more charity for many who, 
through want of gifts, do make an obscurer 
profession than they. I once thought that al- 
most all that could pray movingly and fluently 
and talk well of religion, were saints. But ex- 
perience has shown me what odious crimes may 
go with high professions ; and I have met with 
obscure persons, not noted for any great profes- 
sion or forwardness in religion, only to live a 
quiet, blameless life, whom I have afterwards 
found to have long lived a truly godly and 
sanctified life." 

John Milton {^1608-16^4). 

For learning, invention, and sublimity of 
thought, Milton has no equal in English lit- 
erature. He was a writer both of prose and 
poetry that will be read so long as the world 
endures, but it is for his poetry that he is best 
known and admired. John Milton was born 
in Bread street, London. At sixteen he en- 
tered Cambridge University, and was there 
distinguished for his scholarship, morality, and 
personal beauty. There, also, he wrote several 
poems, including the Hymn on the Nativity, 
which gave proof of his future greatness. On 
leaving the University, Milton went to live 




JOHN MILTON. 



lOI 

with his parents at Horton, near Windsor, 
where he remained five years. During this 
time he read Greek and Latin writers, studied 
mathematics and music, and also wrote his 
Comus, Lycidas^ Arcades^ L' Allegro, and // Pen- 
seroso. On the death of his mother, in 1637, 
Milton went to Italy, and made the acquaintance 
of many learned men, including Grotius and 
Galileo. Hearing that civil war was likely to 
break out in England, he returned in 1639 and 
earnestly helped the cause of the Parliament 
with his pen. For twenty years he wrote al- 
most entirely in prose, attacking the royalists 
and churchmen, and defending the execution 
of Charles I. For ten years his eyesight was 
failing, owing to continuous use, and in 1652 he 
became totally blind. His literary work, how- 
ever, did not cease. He engaged young friends, 
who visited him, to read to him and write for 
him. His three daughters seem to have been 
of little use to him. This was owing partly to 
their bad dispositions, and partly to the way he 
had brought them up. He did not allow them 
to learn any foreign language, nor did he send 
them to school, but had them taught somewhat 
at home. They combined in cheating him and 
in selling his books without his knowledge. 

He composed Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, 
Samson Agonistes, and other works, while lying 
in bed or walking in the garden. 

Milton was a Puritan. He opposed the State 



102 

Church and the Monarchy, desiring \o see a 
Commonwealth established in England. At 
the restoration, in 1660, he was obliged to hide 
himself for a time from the fury of the King's 
friends. 

He died in 1664 and was buried at St. Giles, 
Cripplegate, London. 

The* Paradise Lost is in twelve books. It 
gives an account of the temptation and fall of 
our first parents, and their expulsion from the 
garden of Eden. 

When this work was finished, Milton lent the 
manuscript to his friend Ellwood, a Quaker, to 
read, asking him to give his opinion of it. On 
returning it, Ellwood expressed his great pleas- 
ure, but added, "Thou hast said much here 
about Paradise Lost, but what hast thou to say 
of Paradise Found?" Soon after this Milton 
gave Ellwood another poem, called Paradise Re- 
gained, saying, '' This is owing to you, for you 
put it into my head to write it." 

Paradise Regained is in four books, showing 
the temptation and victory of the Christ, the 
second Adam, over Satan. 

For Paradise Lost Milton received only five 
pounds, and the promise of five pounds more 
from the publishers when 1,300 copies had been 
sold. 

Samson Agonistes, or Samson the Combatant, 
is a dramatic poem relating the incidents in the 



I03 

life of the great Israelite champion. Lycidas is 
a poem on the death of Milton's beloved friend, 
Edward King, who was shipwrecked in the 
Irish Sea. 

L Allegro is an ode to Mirth and // Pen- 
seroso an ode to Melancholy. Comiis is a 
mask, and by far the best ever written. The 
circumstances of its production are said to be as 
follows : While John Egerton, earl of Bridge- 
water, was keeping court at Ludlow Castle, as 
lord president of Wales, his two sons, and 
daughter. Lady Alice, were benighted and lost 
their way in Haywood forest. The two broth- 
ers left their sister alone in a region inhabited 
by boors and savage peasants, while they went 
to find a path. From these simple facts, Milton 
produced a work unequalled for fairy spells and 
poetical delight. While the brothers are gone, 
Comus, a monster, discovers the beautiful lady, 
and under the disguise of a peasant conducts 
her to his own cottage for protection, till her 
brothers return. Meanwhile the brothers, un- 
able to find their way back to their sister, be- 
come dreadfully uneasy lest some harm should 
befall her. A good Spirit now informs them of 
the character of Comus and his evil designs. 
Under his guidance they find the den of Comus 
and his crew, rush in upon them, put them to 
rout, and release their sister. She is taken 
back to her father's court, where she is received 
with joy and thankfulness. 



I04 

Milton wrote a number of sonnets, or short 
poems of fourteen lines each, of wliicli the 
one on the Massacre in Piedmont, and that on 
his own Blindness are probably the most ad- 
mired, the latter closing with the oft quoted 
line, 

" They also serve who only stand and wait." 

Here are a few selections from the speech of 
Satan in Paradise Lost : 

. . . " To be weak is miserable, 
Doing or suffering; but of this be sure, 
To do ought good never will be our task. 
But ever to do ill, our sole delight." 

Book I: 1^7-160. 

" Farewell, happy fields, 
Where joy forever dwells ! Hail, horrors ; hail, 
Infernal world ! and thou profoundest hell. 
Receive thy new possessor ; one who brings 
A mind not to be changed by place or time. 
The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 

Book 1 : 24Q-2JJ. 

"Who overcomes 
By force, hath overcome but half his foe. " 

Book 1 : 648-64Q. 

Speaking of the Grecian fable that Jove 
hurled Vulcan out of heaven, Milton says : 

" From morn 
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 
Dropp'd from the zenith like a falling star." . 

Book I: 742-745. 



I 



I05 

Here is a selection from Eve's address to 
Adam. 

" With thee conversing, I forget all time ; 
All seasons and their change all please alike. 
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, 
With charm of earliest birds : pleasant the sun. 
When first on this delightful land he spreads 
His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
Glistering with dew ; fragrant the fertile earth 
After soft showers ; and sweet the coming on 
Of grateful evening mild ; then silent night, 
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon, 
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train : 
But neither breath of morn, when she ascends 
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun 
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower, 
Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers; 
Nor grateful evening mild; nor silent night 
With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon 
Or glittering starlight without thee is sweet." 

Book IV : 63Q~6s6. 

John Drydcn {idji-iyoo). 

The most famous poet of the latter half of 
the seventeenth century, except Milton, was 
John Dryden. 

His first poem to attract notice was on Crom- 
well's death, but when Charles H came to the 
throne, Dryden wrote in his praise. In 1668 
he was made poet laureate, and this brought 
upon him the hatred of those who wanted that 
honor for themselves. In his Absalom and 
A hit hop he I, and other satires, he completely 
silenced all his enemies. 



io6 

As he refused to take the oath, when William 
and Mary came to the throne, he lost his place 
as laureate, and turned to writing plays. 
Towards the end of life, he translated Virgil 
and wrote Fables which added to his fame. He 
was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

John Bunyan {1628-1688). 

We are now to survey briefly the life and 
works of one of the most remarkable men that 
ever lived ; one who has influenced the world 
for good, as very few men have done, and 
whose good influence through his Pilgrims 
Progress, shall live and extend till the end of 
time. 

John Bunyan was born in the village of 
Elstow, near Bedford. His father was a tinker 
and John learned the same trade. His parents 
were poor, but they sent him to the best school 
they could afford and he learned to read and 
write. Through mingling with evil com- 
panions, John early became reckless and pro- 
fane, but he married a good woman, who had 
much to do with his reformation. 

In his sixteenth or seventeenth year, he 
became a soldier in the Parliamentary army. 
We know little of his career in the army, ex- 
cept that he once escaped death by a comrade 
taking his place as sentry. 

After marriage he was at first proud of his 
good life, but afterwards became subject to 



107 

terrible prickings of conscience and fits of 
doubt, which lasted for several years. Finally, 
he found hope and peace, and became a mem- 
ber of the Baptist church at Bedford. He 
occasionally addressed small religious meet- 
ings, and when the pastor of the church died 
in 1655, Bunyan was asked to fill his place for 
a time. He did, so, and his preaching drew 
crowds to hear him. But after the Restoration 
he was arrested and convicted on a charge of 
not attending the established church, and of 
upholding other meetings. He was imprisoned 
in Bedford jail, where he was kept twelve 
years. He supported his wife and children by 
making tagged laces. The only books he had 
with him in prison were the Bible and Fox's 
Book of Martyrs. But though his mouth was 
stopped, his pen was busy; for in his damp cell 
he wrote a work that has since been read with 
delight by all sorts and conditions of men 
throughout the world. 

In 1672 Bunyan was released through the 
efforts of Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, and 
he immediately began preaching again in 
various parts of the country. After' King 
James II's decree allowing liberty of conscience 
was issued, he again settled at Bedford and 
preached there. While on a preaching journey 
in 1688, he took cold in a rain storm and died 
in London. He was buried at Bunhill Fields ; 



io8 

where also are the graves of Isaac Watts, John 
Wesley, and Daniel Defoe. 

The Pilgrims Progress is an allegory, in which 
the trials, helps, and hindrances connected with 
an attempt to live the Christian life are vividly 
set forth. Christian, the Pilgrim, is a man who 
becomes conscious of the danger of living a sin- 
ful life. His old manner of life, with its evil 
habits, which he forsakes, is the City of De- 
struction. The daily struggle to overcome sin, 
and to lead a noble life is the journey to the 
Celestial City. 

In the second part, the experiences of Chris- 
tiana, the wife of Christian, with her children, 
are depicted in the same graphic and charming 
manner. 

Bunyan also wrote TJie Holy War, Grace 
Abounding, and other works. 

Jo Jin Locke {16J2-1J04). 

Before leaving the prose writers of the 
seventeenth century, we must notice one more 
distinguished name. John Locke, the eminent 
philosophical writer, was a graduate of Oxford. 
He intended to be a physician, but poor health 
compelled him after a short practice to give 
up this design. After serving awhile as secre- 
tary to the English minister at Berlin, he 
began to search into metaphysics, and after- 
wards wrote his great Essay on the Human Un- 
derstanding. In this work he showed : i . That 



109 

we have no innate ideas. 2. That experience 
is the only source of earthly knowledge. 3. 
That experience is twofold — internal or ex- 
ternal — according as it is employed about 
sensible objects or on the operations of our 
minds. 4. That there are two kinds of ideas, 
— ideas of sensation and ideas of reflection. 

Locke also wrote On the Reasonableness of 
Christianity , Letters on Toleration Thoughts on 
Education^ etc. 

2. Minor Writers of the Seventeenth Century. 

There were many writers of poetry and 
prose in the seventeenth century, who were 
popular in their own day, but are now little 
known. Among these Thomas Carew, Edmund 
Waller, Abraham Cowley, John Suckling, 
Richard Lovelace, and Robert Herrick pro- 
duced, for the most part, light and pleasant 
songs on the trivial things about them. 

Lovelace, the gifted but unfortunate, wrote 
while in prison some lines that will always be 
quoted : — 

" Stone walls do not a prison make 

Nor iron bars a cage, 
Minds innocent and qniet take 

That for an hermitage ; 
If I have freedom in my love. 

And in my soul am free ; 
Angels alone that soar above 

Enjoy such liberty." 



no 

Samuel Butler {1612-1680). 

The author of the best burlesque poem in 
our language was Samuel Butler. His Hudibras 
was a caricature of the Puritans and caused 
immense delight at the court of Charles 11. In 
it, a Puritan, named Hudibras, is supposed to 
set out upon a crusade against all the popular 
sports of the day and makes himself ridiculous. 
But though the king and court were made 
merry, Butler received no royal reward for his 
labor, and died in poverty. 

J. Religious Poetry. 

The chief writers of religious poetry in the 
seventeenth century, besides Milton, were Giles 
Fletcher, George Herbert, Francis Quarles, 
William Harrington, Richard Crashaw, and 
George Wither. The best-known of these is 
George Herbert, (i 593-1633,) whose noble life 
has been recorded by Isaak Walton. Herbert 
had all the advantage of noble birth, pious 
parentage, fine education, and brilliant natural 
gifts. 

In early life, he hoped to reach a high posi- 
tion at court, but by the death of King James I, 
and two noble friends, his hopes were da.shed 
to the ground. After a short season of sadness 
and perplexity, Herbert ' decided to enter the 
Christian ministry. During the brief period 
of six years that followed before his early 
death, Herbert was a beautiful example of 



Ill 

pastoral fidelity. He wrote The Comitr^ Parson, 
his Character and Rule of Holy Life ; and a num- 
ber of Sacred Poems. 

Here is a selection from Ms poem on Sun- 
day : — 

" O day most calm, most bright, 
The week were dark but for thy light ; 
Thy torch doth show the way. 

The Sundays of man's life 
Threaded together on time's string, 
Make bracelets to adorn the wife 
Of the eternal, glorious king." 

^. Newspapers. 

Before leaving the literature of the seven- 
teenth century, we must notice the beginning 
of what has, in our day, become one of the 
most potent influences in civilization. 

Towards the close of the reign of James I, 
pamphlets containing foreign news were occa- 
sionally published in England. The earliest 
now known is entitled News out of Holland, and 
is dated 1619. Similar pamphlets, dated 1620, 
1 62 1, and 1622, containing news from foreign 
countries are preserved. The first paper that 
came out at regular intervals, seems to have 
been called The News of the Present Week, edited 
by Nathaniel Butler. It was started in 1622, in 
the early days of the Thirty-Years War. 

English newspapers, containing domestic 
intelligence, began with the Long Parliament, 



112 

the earliest known being dated 1641. It con- 
tained an acco'jint of the proceedings of the 
Parliament for about a year. Within ten years 
from that time more than a hundred news- 
papers with different titles were published, but 
nearly all were only occasional. 

The first regular papers were weeklies, but 
as curiosity for news increased some of them 
were published two or three times a week. 

The first daily morning paper in London is 
said to have been the Daily Courant, begun in 
1709. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Eitglish Literature of the Eighteenth Century 
and part of the Nineteenth. 
I. At the beginning of the eighteenth cent- 
ury, England was in the midst of a stirring 
political and religious conflict. The political 
strife was between the Whigs and Tories, the 
religions, between Dissenters and Churchmen. 
This condition of conflict had existed for a 
long time, but it had been intensified at the 
Revolution of 1688, when part of the people 
took the oath of allegiance to William and 
Mary, and part refused to do so. This condi- 
tion of things produced a good deal of litera- 
ture of an inferior sort. There were plenty 
of political pamphlets, in which literature was 
degraded by slander and satire. The best 
writers took sides with one party or the other, 
and called one another all sorts of names. 
This style of writing was simple and clear, 
but it was fatal to the highest kind of poetry, 
which requires close study of Nature, depth, as 
well as warmth of Feeling, and strong creative 
Imagination. 

Alexander Pope {idSj-iy^.^). 

This poet, by far the most eminent of his 
6 (113) 



114 

time, was born in London. Being feeble and 
delicate, he did not attend any of the public 
schools, but was instructed mostly at home till 
.the age of twelve. Having then acquired a 
considerable knowledge of Latin and Greek, 
he resolved to pursue his studies alone. He had 
already written an Ode on Solitude, which was 
a remarkable production, for one so young. 
After the death of his father. Pope made his 
home at Twickenham, on the Thames, where 
he spent the rest of his life. Here he was vis- 
ited by the most famous wits, statesmen, and 
beauties of the day. 

A trivial circumstance suggested his poem, 
The Rape of the Lock, the most graceful and im- 
aginative of all his works. Lord Petre had cut 
off a lock of the hair of a fashionable beauty, 
Arabella Pernor, arousing her severe displeas- 
ure, and Pope commemorated the circumstance 
in a poem. 

His Eloisa to Abelard was one of his most 
popular productions. Thus far his poems had 
brought him much fame but little fortune ; but 
he won increased fame, and considerable for- 
tune by his Translation of the Iliad, and then 
the Odyssey, receiving 8,000 pounds for them. 

His next work was the Dunciad, which was 
an answer to a host of critics and inferior poets 
who attacked him through envy of his success. 
It was a fierce satire and his enemies were 
overwhelmed by it. 




''f^^y>' 'i£/ iti'- 



ALEXANDER POPE. 



115 

The last great work that Pope completed was 
the Essay on Man. 

His death occurred in 1 7/14, and he was buried 
in Twickenham church. 

A good judge of poetry gives the opinion 
that for correctness, elegance, and knowledge 
of man, Pope ranks next below Milton, and 
just above Dryden. 

Here is a selection from Pope's Messiah, 
based on Isaiah : 

" Hark ! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers ; 
Prepare the way, a God, a God appears. 

The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity. 
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies ! 
Sink down, ye mountains ; and ye valleys rise ! 
With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay ; 
Be smooth, ye rocks ; ye rapid floods give way. 
The Saviour comes ! by ancient bards foretold ! 
Hear him, ye deaf ; and all ye blind behold ! 
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, 
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day. 
'Tis he the obstructed paths of sound shall clear, 
And bid new music charm the unfolding ear : 
The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, 
And leap exulting, like the bounding roe. 
No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear, 
From every face he wipes off every tear. 
In adamantine chains shall death be bound 
And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound. 
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care. 
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air ; 
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs, 
By day o'ersees them and by night protects ; 



ii6 



The tender lambs he raises in his arms, 
Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms ; 
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage. 
The promised father of the future age. 
No more shall nation against nation rise, 
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes, 
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er ; 
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more ; 
But useless lances into scythes shall bend. 
And the broad falchion in a plowshare end. 
Then palaces shall rise ; the joyful son 
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun ; 
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield, 
And the same hand that sowed shall reap the field. 

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL. 

" Vital spark of heavenly flame ! 
Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame ! 
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying — 
Oh the pain, the bliss of dying ! 
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife. 
And let me languish into life ! 

" Hark ! they whisper ; Angels say, 
Sister spirit, come away. 
What is this absorbs me quite ? 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight ? 
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath? 
Tell me, my soul, can this be death ? 

" The world recedes ; it disappears ! 
Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears 

With sounds seraphic ring : 
Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly ! 
Oh Grave ! where is thy Victory ? 

Oh Death ! where is thy Sting ? " 



ii; 

While Pope was winning fame by his splen- 
did work, a number of other poets were also 
busy, but none of them approached his genius. 

Richard Blackmore wrote of Prince Arthur ; 
John Philips wrote a burlesque, The Splendid 
Shilling ; Mathew Green produced Spleen. 

John Gay (1688-1732) won the friendship of 
Pope by a poem entitled Rural Sports, which he 
dedicated to him. Gay wrote a burlesque on 
the Art of Walking the Streets of London, besides 
his Fables, the finest in our language. Gay 
also w^rote dramas, but had no success till his 
Beggar s Opera appeared. The manager of 
Drury Lane Theater, whose name was Rich, 
brought out the play. It was so popular that 
some one said this opera made Gay rich, and 
Rich gay. 

At Gay's death, he was buried in Westmin- 
ster Abbey, and Pope Avrote his epitaph. The 
first two lines are : — 

" Of manners gentle, of affections mild, 
In wit, a man ; simplicity, a child." 

One of Gay's fables tells of The Bull and the 
Mastiff : — 

"As on a time in peaceful reign 
A Bull enjoyed the flowery plain, 
A Mastiff passed, inflamed with ire^ 
His eyeballs shot indignant fire. 
He foamed, he raged with thirst of blood. 
Spurning the ground the monarch stood 



ii8 

And roared aloud : ' ' Suspend the fight ; 
In a whole skin go sleep to-night : 

Or tell me ere the battle rage, 
What wrongs provoke thee to engage ? 
Is it ambition fires thy breast, 
Or avarice that ne'er can rest? 
From these alone unjustly springs 
The world-destroying wrath of kings." 
The surly Mastiff thus returns : 
"Within my bosom glory burns • 
Like heroes of eternal name, 
Whom poets sing. I fight for fame. 
The butcher's spirit stirring mind 
To daily war my youth inclined ; 
He trained me to heroic deed, 
Taught me to conquer or to bleed." 
" Cursed Dog," the Bull replied, "no more 
I wonder at thy thirst for gore ; 
For thou (beneath a butcher trained 
Whose hands with cruelty are stained, 
His daily murders in thy view) 
Must like thy tutor blood pursue. 
Take, then, thy fate." With goring wound 
At once he lifts him from the ground : 
Aloft the sprawling hero flies, 
Mangled he falls, he howls, he dies." 

Matthew Prior {i66^-i'/2i). 

Prior was a Tory writer and an associate of 
Pope. He was one of the best minor poets of 
his day. An extract from A?i Epitaph will give 
an idea of his jesting style : — 

" Interred beneath this marble stone 
Lie sauntering Jack and idle Joan, 



119 

While rolling three score years and one 

Did round this globe their courses run. 

If human things went ill or well, 

If changing empires rose or fell, 

The morning past, the evening came. 

And found this couple still the same. 

They walked, and ate, good folks : what then^ 

Why then they walked and ate again : 

They soundly slept the night away ; 

They did just nothing all the day ; 

No sister either had, nor brother ; 

They seemed just fitted for each other. 

Their moral and economy 
Most perfectly they made agree. 
Each virtue kept its proper bound, 
Nor trespassed on the other's ground. 
No fame nor censure they regarded 
They neither punished nor rewarded. 
He cared not what the footman did ; 
Her maids she neither praised nor chid : 
So every servant took his course. 
And, bad at first, they all grew worse. 

No man's defects sought they to know ; 
So never made themselves a foe. 
No man's good deeds did they commend; 
So never raised themselves a friend. 

Without love, hatred, joy, or fear, 

They led — a kind of — as it were. 

Nor wished nor cared nor laughed nor cried^ 

And so they lived and so they died." 

James TJioriison {lyoo-iy^S). 

James Thomson was the son of a Scotch 
clergyman. While studying theology at the 



120 

University of Edinburgh lie discovered his 
poetic gift, and resolved to cultivate it. He 
went to London, where he was at first neglected, 
but his poem of The Seasons afterwards won 
him fame. His Castle of Indolence is his best 
work. His poems are full of beautiful descrip- 
tions of nature, and his frequent allusions to 
the sufferings of the poor show that he had a 
tender heart. 

Isaac Watts {^idj^-ij/jS ). 

This writer has a world-wide fame. He was 
for many years an Independent minister at 
Southampton, and though in poor health, his 
writings, both in poetry and prose, are numer- 
ous. All his works are of a moral or religious 
nature. Here is one of his short poems : — 

THE ROSE. 

" How fair is the rose ! what a beautiful flower! 
The glory of April and May : 
But the leaves are beginning to fade in an hour 
And they wither and die in a day. 

Yet the rose has one powerful virtue to boast 

Above all the flowers of the field : 
When its leaves are all dead, and its fine colors lost, 

Still how sweet a perfume it will yield. 

So frail is the youth and the beauty of men, 
Though they bloom and look gay like the rose ; 

But all our fond care to preserve them is vain, 
Time kills them as fast as he goes. 



121 

Then I'll not be proud of my youth nor my beauty, 

Since both of them wither and fade ; 
But gain a good name by well doing my duty. 

This will scent like a rose when I'm dead." 

Watts' Improvement of the Mind is full of 
excellent advice : — 

'' General Directions relating to our Ideas. 
Direction I. Furnish yourselves ivith a rich 
variety of ideas ; acquaint yourselves with things 
ancient and modern ; things natural, civil, and 
religious ; things domestic and national ; things 
of your native land and of foreign countries ; 
things present, past, and future ; and above all 
be well acquainted with God and yourselves ; 
learn animal nature, and the workings of your 
own spirit." 

Direction 11. '' Use the most proper methods to 
retain that treasure of ideas which you have acquired; 
for the mind is ready to let many of them slip, 
unless some pains and labor be taken to fix 
them upon the memory." 

" In order to preserve the ideas and knowl- 
edge you have gained, do these things, 
especially in your younger years. 

1. Recollect every day the things you have 
seen, heard, or read. 

2. Talk over the things you have seen, 
heard, or learnt, with proper acquaintance. 

3. Commit to writing some of the most 
important ideas you have gained." 

6* 



122 

William Collins {1^20- iy^6). 

Among minor poets, as tliey were called who 
wrote only few or short poems, William Collins 
was the first of his time. He was educated at 
Oxford and most of his poetry was written 
before he was twenty-six years of age. After 
that time he gradually sank into melancholy, 
and finally died insane. 

William Cowper {lyji- 1800). 

This was the most popular poet of his time. 
He was the son of a clergyman. From a child, 
the poet was very delicate and sensitive. The 
death of his mother, when he was but six years 
of age was a great misfortune to him, and he 
intensely loved her memory all the rest of his 
life. 

At ten years of age, William was sent to 
Westminster School in London, where he re- 
mained till he was eighteen. He was a diligent 
student, but he always looked back to his school 
days with horror, because of the mean tyranny 
of older and stronger boys. 

After leaving school, he became an attorney, 
but he gave more attention to literature than 
to the law. 

In 1763, Cowper 's mind gave way, but kind 
friends took care of him till he recovered, 
though he was subject to seasons of melancholy 
all his life. 

For a number of years he lived at Olney, 




WILLIAM COWPER. 



123 

where he was in close friendship with the rec- 
tor, John Newton. 

Cowper's chief poetical works are, Table Talk, 
Hope, The Progress of Error, Charity, and The 
Task. He also translated the Iliad and the 
Odyssey. Among his short poems are many 
hymns. 

Cowper's only amusing poem is The Diverting 
History of John Gilpin, which had its origin in 
the following way. One afternoon, when the 
poet seemed to be unusually depressed, his 
friend, Lady Austen, told him the story of John 
Gilpin as she had heard it in her childhood. 
Cowper enjoyed it very much. The next morn- 
ing he told her that he had been kept awake 
the greater part of the night thinking of the 
story and laughing at it, and that he had 
turned it into a ballad. His friend, Mr. Unwin, 
on reading the ballad, said that it made him 
laugh tears. Many a person has laughed over 
it since then. 

Here are a few selections from Cowper : 

SLAVERY. 

"I would not have a slave to till my ground, 
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep. 
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned. 
No: dear as freedom is, and in my heart's 
Just estimation prized above all price, 
I had much rather be myself the slave 
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him." 

The Task, Book II. 



124 

When Cowper wrote the above lines, there 
were nearly a million African slaves in the 
British colonies. 

KINDNESS TO ANIMALS. 

" I would not enter on my list of friends the man 
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm." 

The Task. Book VL 

THE SWALLOW. 

I am fond of the swallow — I learn from her flight, 
Had I skill to improve it, a lesson of I/Ove : 

How seldom on earth do we see her alight ! 
She dwells in the skies, she is ever above. 

It is on the wing that she takes her repose, 
Suspended and poised in the regions of air ; 

'Tis not in our fields that her sustenance grows. 
It is winged like herself, 'tis ethereal fare. 

She comes in the spring, all the summer she stays. 
And, dreading the cold, still follows the sun — 

So, true to our Love^we should covet his rays, 
And the place where he shines not, immediately shun. 

Our light should be Love, and our nourishment prayer; 

It is dangerous food that we find upon earth; 
The fruit of this world is beset with a snare. 

In itself it is hurtful, as vile as its birth. 

William Cowper. 

Robert Burns {ly^g-iygd). 

Robert Burns was the most famous poet that 
Scotland has produced. He was born in a little 
clay cottage about two miles from Ayr. His 
father was a farmer of small means, but of 
great intelligence and piety. Robert had only 



125 

a limited education, but lie made good use of 
what he had. He delighted in poetry and read 
it as he drove his cart, or walked along the 
road to his labor. He began to write poetry 
himself before he was sixteen. His poetic and 
conversational gifts made him very popular 
with the young men of the village, and caused 
his downfall, for he was led into habits of in- 
temperance. Hoping to get away from bad 
associates, he published a volume of poems to 
raise money for a journey to Jamaica. He 
cleared twenty pounds and engaged his passage, 
but before the time of sailing a good friend in- 
vited him to go to Edinburgh and publish 
another volume. Burns changed his mind and 
went to Edinburgh, where he soon made 
friends of the most eminent people, and a new 
edition of his poems brought him nearly five 
hundred pounds. He gave two hundred 
pounds of this to help his mother and brother 
on the farm. Unfortunately he became a slave 
to drink. Wretched and broken hearted, 
through the miseries he had brought upon 
himself and his family, he died at Dumfries, at 
the early age of thirty-six. 

Burns wrote of common life. To use his 
own words, " I sang the loves, the joys, the 
rural scenes, the rural pleasures of my native 
soil." He kindled in Scotsmen a new love for 
their land. He asserted the nobility of honest 
manhood without regard to wealth or station. 



126 

Some of Burns' most popular poems are, The 
Cotter s Saturday Night ; The Two Dogs ; To A 
Mountain Daisy ; To A Mouse ; To Mary in 
Heaven ; For a That, An a That. 

Here is a selection from The Cotter's Satur- 
day Nig-lit: 

' ' The priest-like father reads the sacred page — 
How Abram was the friend of God on high, 

Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage. 
With Amalek's ungracious progeny ; 

Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme — 
How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed ; 

How he who bore in heaven the second name. 
Had not on earth whereon to lay his head. 

Then, kneeling down to heaven's eternal King, 
The saint, the father and the husband prays ; 

Hope springs exultant on triumphant wing, 
That thus they all shall meet in future days. 

From scenes like these Old Scotia's grandeur springs. 
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad : 

Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 
' An honest man's the noblest work of God. ' 

O Scotia, my dear, my native soil, 

For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent, 
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil 

Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content ! 
And O, may Heaven^ their simple lives prevent 

From luxury's contagion, weak and vile ! 
Then howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, 

A virtuous populace may rise the while, 
And stand a wall of fire around their much -loved isle. " 



127 

George Crab be {1^^4.-18^2). 

Crabbe was a native of Suffolk. In his youth 
he was apprenticed to a surgeon, but, having 
no liking for that profession, he went to Lon- 
don to try his fortune at literature. At first he 
was in great poverty, and one night he walked 
backwards and forwards on Westminster Bridge 
till daylight. Finally, he made known his 
trouble to Burke, who kindly assisted him and 
obtained friends for him. His poems, such as 
The Village, The Newspaper, Tales in Verse, Tales 
of the Hall, deal Y\^ith common life, describing 
smugglers, gypsies, tramps, and vagabonds. 
Some of his poems are tender and sweet. 

Thomas Gray {lyrd-iy/i) was born in London, 
and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He 
was an ardent lover of nature, and in early life 
he rambled in Scotland, Wales, and the English 
lake region making notes, and writing to his 
literary friends glowing descriptions of what 
most pleased him. Gray's poems, though few, 
are among the choicest in the English language. 
Some of them were written and circulated 
among his friends long before they were pub- 
lished. The ode On a Distant Prospect of Eton 
College is considered equal to any lyric poem, 
ancient or modern. The Elegy zvritten in a 
Country Church-Yard is Gray's most celebrated 
poem, and it is one of the most popular in our 
language, for it expresses sentiments common 



128 

to all hearts with wonderful simplicity and 
beauty. 

Gray was a great reader, and one of the most 
learned men in Europe. The post of poet- 
laureate was offered him but he declined it. 
For some years before his death he was Pro- 
fessor of Modern History at Cambridge. He 
was buried by the side of his mother at Stoke, 
near Eton. 

n. Prose Writers of the Eighteenth 
Century. 

I. Political and Philosophical Writers. 

Before going on to notice the poets who 
came after the time of Pope, we will turn to 
the prose writers of the period following the 
Revolution, who, as we have said, ranged 
themselves with one or the other political party, 
and hurled at each other the keenest satire and 
the grossest personal abuse. 

The chief prose writers of Pope's time were 
Swift, Defoe, Addison, and Berkeley. 

Jonathan Swift {iSSy-iy^.f). 

Swift stands at the head of the prose writers 
of the eighteenth century. He was the great- 
est master of comic and caustic satire that has 
yet appeared in our language. He was also, in 
all probability, one of the most unhappy men 
that ever lived. He was born in Dublin, 
of English parents, and was reared in great 



ROBERT BURNS. 



129 

poverty. His father being dead, he was sup- 
ported by relatives, and educated at Trinity 
College, Dublin. As a student, he was careless 
and turbulent, caring more for writing satires 
and political rhymes than for study. At the 
age of twenty-one he went to England and be- 
came secretary and companion of Sir William 
Temple. Meanwhile he wrote a famous treatise 
called The Battle of the Books, and took orders 
in the church. On the death of Temple, in 
1698, Swift went to Ireland to become vicar of 
Loracor, northwest of Dublin. Here he pub- 
lished The Tale of a Tub, the most satirical 
work of the eighteenth century. It was a bur- 
lesque on the disputes then raging between the 
Catholics, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. 
After leaving the Whigs, because he thought 
they neglected him, he went over to the Tories, 
and libeled his former political friends. The 
Tories rewarded him by making him dean of 
St. Patricks, Dublin. He hoped for further ad- 
vancement in the church, but the Whigs came 
into power again on the death of Queen Anne, 
and prevented it. 

Although vSwift hated Ireland, he took up the 
cause of the people against a scheme to supply 
Ireland with copper money to the amount of 
180,000 pounds. Under the assumed name of 
M. B. Drapier, Swift wrote a series of letters 
full of reason, sarcasm, and invective that pro- 
duced a great ferment in Ireland. The gov- 



I30 

eminent was obliged to withdraw the copper 
money. Rewards amounting* to 600 pounds 
were offered for the real name of Drapier, but 
no one betrayed him. In 1726 Swift went to 
England and published Gulliver s Travels, the 
most popular of all his w^orks. In it he satir- 
ized the politics and manners of England and 
Europe, and the imperfections of poor human 
nature. On returning to Ireland, he wrote sev- 
eral minor works, but his mind began to give 
way, and he died in a state of idiocy after years 
of intense suffering. 

Daniel De Foe {1661-iyji). 

This remarkable man was born in London, 
and was the son of a butcher. He began his 
career as an author at twenty years of age by 
writing pamphlets. In 1685 he took part in the 
rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth and barely 
escaped punishment. Then he engaged in 
trade, but one misfortune after another made 
him give it up. In 1701 he published a satiri- 
cal poem called The True-born Englishman, in 
defense of King William, who had been abused 
as a foreigner. This poem pleased the King 
very much, and the people also, for 80,000 
pirated copies of it were sold on the streets at 
a low price. For another pamphlet, that was 
misunderstood, he was arrested, pilloried, fined, 
and imprisoned. After his release he began to 
publish The Reviezv, a periodical paper, written 



131 

by himself alone, which appeared two or three 
times a week for nine years. For writing an- 
other political pamphlet he was again impris- 
oned in 1713, and fined 800 pounds. On his 
release, being sick of politics, he turned to 
the production of imaginative literature and 
produced Robinson Crusoe. Many publishers 
refused to touch it, but the one who accepted 
it is said to have made 1,000 pounds by it. 
Dr. Johnson said of it fifty years after, " Nobody 
ever laid it down without wishing it were 
longer." 

De Foe produced numerous other works of 
fiction. One of them called a Journal of the 
Plague was for a long time believed to be a gen- 
uine recital of fact. 

De Foe's charm lies in his particularity and 
simplicity. He gives dates, year, month, and 
day. He tells which way the wind was blow- 
ing and all the small items that make a narra- 
tive seem real. 

His deg,th occurred in 1731, and he was buried 
in Bunhill Fields, London, 

Bishop Berkeley {i684.-iy^j;). 

George Berkeley was born in Ireland and 
was a friend of Swift. His acute mind was 
used in the production of many philosophical 
works in defense of religion. He was dean of 
Derry, with an income of 1,100 pounds, but he 
resigned place and income, and came to Amer- 



132 

ica to found churches among the Indians. 
After six years he returned, poor and discour- 
aged, but he was soon made bishop of Cloyne. 

2. Essayists. 
Joseph Addison {i6j2-iyig). 

One of the brightest names in English litera- 
ture is that of Joseph Addison. He was the 
son of a clergyman, and was born at Milston 
in Wiltshire. He entered the university of 
Oxford when only fifteen years of age, and 
devoted himself to classical studies, and ob- 
tained great facility in writing Latin verse. 
Through the patronage of Lord Somers he 
obtained a pension of 300 pounds a year, which 
enabled him to travel on the continent, but 
when the Whigs went out of office, in 1702, the 
pension was withdrawn. 

After the victory of Blenheim, gained by the 
Duke of Marlborough in 1704, the ministry 
requested Addison to celebrate the event in 
verse. He did this so well that he was re- 
warded with an office under the government. 

While Addison was in Ireland, in 1709, as 
secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, the Tatler was 
started by his friend Richard Steele, and Addi- 
son became a frequent contributor to it. When 
the Tatler ceased Addison heartily supported 
its successor, the Spectator, which was so popu- 
lar that sometimes twenty thousand copies 
were sold in one day. 



133 

He also contributed largely to the Guardian, 
which followed the Spectator. Addison pro- 
duced several works on various subjects, and 
also wrote a drama that was very popular at the 
time, but his best work is found in the essays 
for the Spectator, in which Sir Roger de Coverly 
is the central figure with Sir Andrew Free- 
port and Will Honeycomb as the subordinates. 
Addison's style was perfect.' His sentiments 
were refined, and his writings did much to 
reform the manners of the time, and to create 
an interest in good literature. Dr. Johnson 
said : '' Whoever wishes to attain an English 
style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but 
not ostentatious, must give his days and nights 
to the volumes of Addison." 

When Addison was dying he sent for his 
step-son, a dissipated young man, whom he 
had often advised to amend his evil ways. 
Reaching the bedside the youth said, '' Dear 
sir, you sent for me, I believe ; I hope you 
have some commands. I shall hold them most 
sacred." Grasping the youth's hand, he said, 
softly, " See in what peace a Christian can die." 
He was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster 
Abbey. 

Addison's style may be seen by the two 
following selections : — 

" Women are armed with fans, as men with 
swords, and sometimes do more execution with 



134 

them. To the end, therefore, that ladies may 
be entire mistresses of the weapon which they 
bear, I have erected an academy for the train- 
ing np of young women in the exercise of the 
fan, according to the most fashionable airs and 
motions that are now practised at court. The 
ladies who carry fans under me are drawn up 
twice a day in my great hall, where they are 
instructed in the use of their arms, and exer- 
cised by the following words of command: — 
Handle your fans ; Unfurl your fans ; Discharge 
your fans ; Recover your fans ; Flutter your 
fans. By the right observation of these few 
words of command, a woman of a tolerable 
genius, who will apply herself diligently to her 
exercise for the space of but one-half year 
shall be able to give her fan all the graces that 
can possibly enter into that little modish 
machine." 

" There is an infinite variety of motions to 
be made use of in the flutter of a fan. There 
is the angry flutter, the modest flutter, the 
timorous flutter, the confused flutter, the merry 
flutter, and the amorous flutter. Not to be 
tedious, there is scarce any emotion in the mind 
which does not produce a suitable agitation in 
the fan ; insomuch that if I only see the fan of 
a disciplined lady, I know very well whether 
she laughs, frowns, or blushes. I have seen a 
fan so very angry that it would have been 




WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 



135 

dangerous for the absent lover who provoked 
it to have come within the wind of it ; and at 
other times so very languishing, that I have 
been glad for the lady's sake the lover was at a 
sufficient distance from it. I need not add 
that a fan is either a prude or coquette, accord- 
ing to the nature of the person who bears it. 
To conclude my letter, I must acquaint you 
that I have from my own observations com- 
piled a little treatise for the use of my scholars 
entitled The Passions of tJic Fan ; which I will 
communicate to you, if you think it may be of 
use to the public, I shall have a general 
Review on Thursday next ; to which you shall 
be very welcome if you will honor it with your 
presence." I am, &c. 

Spectator, No. 102. 

Reflections in Westminster Abbey. 

" When I look upon the tombs of the great, 
every emotion of envy dies in me ; when I read 
the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate 
desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of 
parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with 
compassion ; when I see the tomb of the par- 
ents themselves, I consider the vanity of griev- 
ing for those whom we must quickly follow. 
When I see kings lying by those who deposed 
them, when I consider rival wits placed side by 
side, or the holy men that divided the world 
with their contests and disputes, I reflect with 



136 

sorrow and astonishment on the little compe- 
titions, factions, and debates of mankind. 
When I read the several dates of the tombs, of 
some that died yesterday, and some six hun- 
dred years ago, I consider that great day when 
we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make 

our appearance together." 

Spectator No. 26, 

Richard Steele {i6'/i~i'/2g). 

This writer was born in Dublin. His father 
was an Englishman but his mother was Irish. 
Steele seemed to have inherited from his moth- 
er impulsiveness, tenderness, and a lively im- 
agination. He was educated at the Charter- 
house school, London, with Addison, and at 
Merton College, Oxford. 

Soon after leaving the university he enlisted 
in the Horse Guards and became quite dissi- 
pated. He left the army and married, but was 
extravagant and always in debt. In 1 709 Steele 
commenced the Tatler, assuming the name of 
Isaac Bickerstaff, which Swift had sometimes 
called himself. The Tatler was published three 
times a week, and consisted of short essays on 
life and manners, town gossip, and items of for- 
eign and domestic news. Addison soon joined 
Steele in writing for the Tatler. After running 
for about nine months the Tatler ceased, but 
was soon succeeded by another periodical, called 
the Spectator, begun by Addison, which was 



137 

published daily, except Sundays. Of the 635 
numbers, Addison wrote 274 and Steele 240. 
The others were the work of various other 
writers. The Spectator ceased in December, 
1 71 2, and was followed by the Guardian^ which 
Steele began in the following March. Of the 
176 numbers, Steele wrote 82 and Addison 53. 
The style of Steele is remarkable for ease and 
naturalness, but he was often careless, while 
Addison was always careful and polished. 

Through imprudence and carelessness, 
Steele's last years were spent in poverty. 
While prosperous, his benevolence and sympa- 
thy were unbounded. He died in Wales in 
1729. 

The following extracts will give an idea of 
Steele's style : 

" The first sense of sorrow I ever knew was 
upon the death of my father, at which time I 
was not quite five years of age, but was rather 
amazed at what all the house meant than pos- 
sessed of a real understanding why nobody was 
willing to play with me. I remember I went 
into the room where his body lay, and my 
mother sat weeping alone by it : I had my bat- 
tledore in my hand, and fell a beating the cof- 
fin, and calling papa ; f o:^ I know not how, I 
had some slight idea that his body was locked 
up there. My mother caught me in her arms 
and almost smothered me in her embraces ; and 
7 



138 

told me in a flood of tears that papa could not 
hear me and would play with me no more, for 
they were going to put him under ground, 
whence he could never come to us again. She 
was a very beautiful woman, of a noble spirit, 
and there was a dignity in her grief amidst all 
the wildness of her transport." 

Tatler No. i8i. 

The following, with some change for the 
sake of simplicity, is Steele's account of how a 
blind man was restored to sight : 

" While others are busy in relating what con- 
cerns princes, the peace of nations, and revolu- 
tions of empire, I think, though these are great 
subjects, that I can speak of something of still 
higher importance. The slow steps of Provi- 
dence and nature, and strange events which are 
brought about in an instant, should also receive 
our attention. Such things are not accompa- 
nied with show and noise and therefore do not 
draw the eyes of the unattentive part of man- 
kind, but are useful in exercising our humanity, 
pleasing our imagination, and improving our 
judgment. I will therefore relate the circum- 
stances of the recent cure of a young man who 
was born blind, but received his sight at the age 
of twenty years by the operation of an oculist. 
A surgeon named Grant, having observed the 
eyes of the young man, told his relations and 
friends, including Mr. Caswell, minister of the 



139 

place, that it was highly probable that he 
could remove the obstacle which prevented the 
use of sight. Among those present were the 
mother, brother, and sister of the young man, 
and also a young woman for whom he had 
great affection. Mr. Caswell desired the whole 
company, in case the blindness should be cured, 
to keep silence, and let the young man make 
his own observations. 

"The work was performed with great skill 
and dexterity. When the patient first received 
the dawn of light, he was in such an ecstasy that 
he seemed ready to swoon away in the surprise 
of joy and wonder. The surgeon stood before 
him with his instruments in his hands. The 
young man observed him from head to foot; 
after which he surveyed himself as carefully 
and seemed to compare the surgeon with him- 
self. He observed both their hands and 
seemed to think that the instruments were 
parts of the surgeon's hands. When he had 
continued in this amazement for some time, his 
mother could not longer bear the agitation of 
so many feelings as thronged through her, but 
fell upon his neck crying out,>' My son ! my son !' 
The youth knew her voice and could only say, 
' Oh me ! are you my mother ? ' and fainted. All 
in the room were very affectionately employed 
in bringing him to, but the young woman who 
loved him, and whom he loved, shrieked in the 
loudest manner. Her voice seemed to have a 



140 

sudden effect upon him, as lie recovered, and 
he showed a double curiosity in observing 
her as she spoke to him, until at last he broke 
out, ' What has been done to me ? Where am 
I? Is all this about me the thing I have so 
often heard of? Is this the light? Is this see- 
ing? Where is Tom who used to lead me?' 
He started to walk but seemed afraid of every- 
thing around him. , When they saw his diffi- 
culty, they told him that until he got used to 
seeing, he must still let Tom lead him. 

"The report of what had been done made 
all the neighborhood throng to the house. As 
the crowd increased the youth asked Mr. Cas- 
well to tell him how many persons there were. 
He was told that it would be necessary for him 
to have his eyes covered till they became strong. 
With much reluctance he suffered his eyes to 
be bound until they were strong enough to 
bear the light." 

Taf/er No. JS- 

Oliver Goldsmith {ij28-ijy4). 

This distinguished poet, novelist, historian, 
and essayist was born in Ireland. His father 
was a clergyman of the Established Church. 

After studying in two or three private schools 
he entered Trinity College, Dublin, in his 
fifteenth year. The expenses of his education 
were paid by an uncle. In college he was idle 
and extravagant and gave no promise -of his 
future fame. 




WALTER SCOTT. 



141 

His uncle desired liiin to enter the churcli, 
but the bishop, who examined him, rejected him. 

His uncle then gave him fifty pounds that he 
might go to London and study law at the 
Temple, but stopping in Dublin on the way, he 
lost all his money in gambling. His uncle then 
sent him to Edinburgh to study medicine. He 
remained there about eighteen months and Avas 
then obliged to leave, because he had become 
surety for the debts of a friend. He then went 
to the continent and traveled through Flanders, 
France, Spain, Switzerland, and the north of 
Italy, on foot. He had very little money or 
clothing, but obtained food and lodging where- 
ever he went on account of his good nature, and 
by playing on his flute. 

On returning to England he set up as a 
physician among the poor, but did not succeed. 
He then resolved to support himself by his pen. 
His first work was on hiqiiiring into the Present 
State of Polite Learning in Europe. He next 
published a series of essays weekly on a variety 
of subjects in a paper called The Bee, but at 
first his writings were almost unnoticed. In 
1760, he published his Letters of a Citizen of the 
World. 

He represented these letters as written by a 
Chinese philosopher traveling through Europe 
to study the manners and customs of various 
nations, and remaining for some time in Eng- 
land to describe the manners of the people. 



142 

These letters were generally read and 
admired, but when the Traveler appeared in 
1764, Goldsmith was placed in the front rank 
of English authors. The Traveler was the first 
work that appeared with Goldsmith's name. 
It was a poem describing the author's journey- 
ing in foreign lands. In 1766 he published his 
celebrated novel, The Vicar of Wakefield, which 
was eagerly read by old and young, and has 
received the praise of Scott, Irving, and all 
literary men since it was written. It is believed 
that the Vicar, Dr. Primrose, stands for Gold- 
smith's father. Then followed the comedy of 
The Good Natured Man ; Roman History ; his best 
poem. The Deserted Village ; She Stoops to Con- 
quer ; Grecian History. For his last work a 
History of Animated Nature, he received eight 
hundred and fifty pounds, but it was gone 
almost as soon as received. " Poor Goldy " was 
extravagant, fond of good living and fine 
clothes, and often emptied his purse to a beg- 
gar. He died in poverty and was buried just 
outside the Temple Church in London. There 
is a monument to him in Westminster Abbey. 
Few writers have been so pitied and so beloved. 

J. Novelists of the Eighteenth Century. 

The modern English novel may be said to 
begin near the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Defoe was one of the originators of 
the novel. He had great inventive power and 



143 

skill in narration, but lie was surpassed by 
Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett. 
Samuel Richardson {i68g - ij6i). 

This writer is considered by some the inven- 
tor of the modern English novel. He was the 
son of a carpenter in Derby, and had only a 
country school education. At the age of seven- 
teen he went to London and became apprentice 
to a printer, and afterwards started as a printer 
on his own account. He was prosperous in 
business, but did not become a writer till after 
he was fifty years old. In 1 740 he published 
his Pamela, which had great and instant success. 

It is in the form of letters from a beautiful 
young woman to her parents, and it was in- 
tended not for amusement only, but to cultivate 
the principles of virtue and religion in the 
minds of young people. 

In 1748 Clarissa Harlowe appeared. This is 
Richardson's masterpiece, and it raised his repu- 
tation to the highest point. In it he pictures a 
woman of perfect virtue and honor, who refuses 
to marry a bad man, though her tyrant of a 
father and all the family are determined to 
make her do it. 

His Charles Grandison was intended to show 
the character of a perfect gentleman, who is 
also a Christian. 

Richardson's works show a profound knowl- 
edge of the human heart. They are not much 
read now. 



144 

Henry Fielding (yiyoy-iy^/j). 

Fielding was in several respects the very 
opposite of Richardson, but his name is no less 
famous, and by some he is considered the first 
great English novelist. He was liberally edu- 
cated and began to write at the age of twenty. 
His first works were comedies, which, though 
popular at first, were soon forgotten. When 
Richardson's Pamela appeared, and all London 
was praising it. Fielding resolved to turn it 
into ridicule by writing a satire upon it. His 
Joseph Andrews claimed to give the adventures 
of Pamela's brother. Fielding answered Rich- 
ardson's Clarissa with Tom Jones, his most 
famous novel. His last work was Amelia, a 
picture of domestic tenderness. All of Field- 
ing's works are marred by coarseness, but the 
age was coarse, and he showed society as it 
really was. 

Tobias Smollet {ij2i-iyyi). 

While Richardson and Fielding were de- 
lighting society with their remarkable novels, 
another novelist appeared who excelled in 
humor and burlesque. Smollet was a Scotch- 
man. His first important work was Roderick 
Random, and, like all his works, it is unclean. 

Lawrence Sterne {lyij-iySS). 

Sterne was born in Ireland of English 
descent, and seems to have draAvn from the 



145 

land of his birth the oddity and exuberance 
that appeared in his writings. He was edu- 
cated at Cambridge and became a clergyman 
of the established church. For nearly twenty 
years he lived in Yorkshire, spending probably 
more time in painting, fiddling, and hunting 
than in preaching. 

His Tristram SJiandy gave him instant and 
immense fame, and, on going to London he 
was the literary lion of the day. Sterne's 
humor is delicate and tender, but immoral. 

^. Historical Writers of the Eighteenth Century. 

Three distinguished historians, Hume, 
Robertson, and Gibbon, must be mentioned for 
their valuable additions to English literature. 

David Hume {ijii-iyy6). 

This celebrated historian was born in Edin- 
burgh. He first studied law, but had no taste 
for it and turned to business. He was, how- 
ever, more inclined to literature than to any- 
thing else, and resolved to give his life to it 
alone. Hume's first works were on Moral and 
Mental Philosophy, but he is best known for his 
History of England. The first volume, contain- 
ing the reigns of James I and Charles I, was 
received with great disfavor and caused him to 
be furiously assailed. Only forty-five copies of 
it were sold the first year. He was so dis- 

r 



146 

couraged that he resolved to go to France, 
change his name, and never again return to his 
native land. The war which broke out between 
France and England in 1755 kept him at home, 
and he afterwards picked up courage to bring 
out another volume, which was better received, 
and succeeding volumes brought him fame. 
Hume was the first writer to say little about 
kings, wars, and treaties, and to make much of 
the people and of what concerned their pro- 
gress and happiness. In spite of defects, 
Hume's History of England still holds high 
rank. 

William Robertson (^ijzi-iygj). 

Like Hume, Robertson was also a Scotch- 
man, and they were friends. Robertson's 
History of Scotlaitd was a great success, as also 
were his History of Charles V, and his History of 
America. 

Edward Gibbon {lyjy-ijg/j). 

This historian, the greatest of any age, was 
born at Putney, in Surrey. His education was 
obtained mostly by close study. After living 
about five years in Switzerland he visited Italy. 
While at Rome, in 1764, musing amidst the 
ruins of the Capitol and watching the bare- 
footed friars as they sang vespers in the temple 
of Jupiter, the idea of writing the decline and 
fall of the city first entered his mind. Gradu- 




CHARLES DICKENS. 



147 

ally his plan was enlarged to include the em- 
pire. His Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 
was finished in 1787. It is really a history of 
the civilized world for thirteen centuries, 
during which paganism was giving way and 
Christianity was taking its place. 

5. Other Writers. 
Samuel J oJinson {ryog-iyS^). 

This distinguished writer was born at Lich- 
field, where his father was a bookseller. He 
had a great thirst for knowledge. He entered 
Oxford university, but was obliged to leave at 
the end of three years' study on account of 
poverty. Then he tried teaching for a time, 
but did not succeed, as he lacked patience and 
gentle manners. He next started a school of 
his own, but it did not succeed, so he went to 
London, where he began writing for the Gentle- 
man s Magazine. Though he wrote a good deal 
he was poorly paid for it, and sometimes had 
no food for a whole day. In 1750, he started 
a periodical called the Rambler which he con- 
tinued for tw^o years, writing nearly all the 
articles himself. Then he prepared a Dictionary 
of the English Language, which took eight years 
of solid labor, and was almost the first great 
book of the kind. In 1758, he began another 
periodical called the Idler, which he carried on 
for two years. In 1759, he Avrote a novel called 
Rasselas, to pay the expenses of his mother's 



148 

funeral. It was finislied in the evenings of a 
single week. Finally, at the age of fifty-one, 
his genius was appreciated, and he received a 
pension of 300 pounds for what he had done. 
In 1763, Johnson became acquainted with 
James Boswell, who from that time wrote down 
everything about Johnson till the latter's death, 
nineteen years later. He tells us about John- 
son's coat, his wig, his figure, his rolling gait, 
his love of a good dinner, his thirst for tea, his 
habit of touching the posts as he Avalked along 
the street, his gruntings and puffings, his wit, 
sarcasm, insolence, rage, and his love for his 
friends. 

In 1773, Johnson and Boswell made a tour of 
the western islands of Scotland, and Johnson 
published an interesting account of it. At 
Edinburgh, he visited the school for the deaf 
and speaks of their welcoming their teachers 
with smiling faces and speaking eyes. '' One 
of the young ladies had her slate before 
her, on which I wrote a question of three 
figures to be multiplied by two figures. She 
looked upon it, and, quivering her fingers in a 
manner which I thought very pretty, . . multi- 
plied the sum regularly in two lines, observing 
the decimal place, but did not add the lines 
together, probably disdaining so easy an opera- 
tion. I pointed at the place where the sum 
total should be, and she noted it with such 
expedition as seemed to show that she had it 



149 

only to write. It was pleasing to see one of 
the most desperate of human calamities capable 
of so much help. Whatever enlarges hope will 
exalt courage. After having seen the deaf 
taught arithmetic, who would be afraid to culti- 
vate the Hebrides ? " 

Johnson's last great literary work was his 
Lives of the Poets. 

He had always dreaded death, but when it 
was near he was calm and quite resigned to it. 
He was buried in Westminster Abbey, close 
by his friend Garrick. 

Thomas CJiatterton {^iy^2-iyy6). 

This is in some respects the most wonderful 
name in English literature. Thomas Chatter- 
ton was born in Bristol and was the son of a 
teacher there. His mind seems never to have 
been young. At eight years of age he showed 
a great love for books, and before he was 
twelve he had read about seventy volumes. 
At fourteen he was apprenticed to an attorney, 
but all his leisure time was devoted to the study 
of antiquities. In 1 768, Chatterton being then 
sixteen years of age, a new bridge was opened 
at Bristol to take the place of an old one. On 
that occasion the Bristol Jotirnal contained an 
article claiming to be an account of the open- 
ing of the old bridge taken from an ancient 
manuscript. The article was traced to Chatter- 
ton, who said that the manuscript had been 



ISO 

found with many others in an old chest in 
Redcliffe church, and that they were written 
by John Rgwley, a priest of the fifteenth 
century. In 1 770, Chatterton went to London, 
taking many of his so-called ancient manu- 
scripts and some of his poems. There he 
worked hard and produced a great number of 
poems and essays which editors were ready 
enough to print, but quite unwilling to pay for. 
Chatterton was poor, and actually suffered for 
want of food. After living in London four 
months, he ended his life by taking poison, 
before he had reached his eighteenth year. 
No English poet has equaled him at the same 
age. 

Edmund Burke {lyjo-iygf). 

This distinguished writer and statesman was 
born in Dublin. After attending several good 
schools, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, and 
in 1750 he became a law student at the Middle 
Temple, London. He soon gave up the study 
of law, however, and turned his whole attention 
to literature and politics. 

His Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful placed 
him in the very first rank of writers. In this 
essay, he aimed to show that terror is the chief 
source of the sublime, and that beauty is the 
quality in objects that excites love or affection. 
In 1765, Burke became a member of Parliament, 
and was there a strong advocate of justice and 



151 

righteousness. He opposed the war against 
the American Colonies, and deplored the 
French Revolution. He advocated the freedom 
of the press and the abolition of the slave-trade, 
and was always a warm friend of humanity. 
The death of his son, after being elected to 
Parliament, was a blow from which he never 
recovered. Burke's knowledge was extensive 
and varied, and he was a writer of the first class. 
His lamentation over his son is one of the most 
eloquent passages in our language. 



CHAPTER IX. 

English Literature of the Nineteenth Century. 
I. The Lake Poets. 

In the early part of the nineteenth century- 
three poets, friends of one another, were living 
in the English lake region. They were Cole- 
ridge, Southey, and Wordsworth. They were 
ridiculed at first, and the name Lake Poets was 
given them in derision, though it is now their 
title of honor. They broke away from former 
methods and. used in poetry the language of 
ordinary conversation. They all, at first, had a 
democratic dislike of kings and were in sym- 
pathy with the French Revolution, but in after 
years they all changed their minds. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge {iyy2-i8j/j). 

This gifted writer was born in the county of 
Devon, where his father was a curate. His 
early education was received at Christ's Hos- 
pital, London, where he was a schoolfellow of 
Charles Lamb. He afterwards went to Cam- 
bridge University, but after two years became 
despondent and returned to London, where 
he enlisted as a common soldier. After a few 
months he was bought off by his friends. He 
then went to Bristol and there made the ac- 

(152) 




THOMAS CARLYLE. 



153 

quaintance of Southey and others. With these 
he formed a plan of emigrating to the United 
States, hoping to live in peace and happiness 
on the banks of the Susquehanna river. They 
soon discovered that money was necessary for 
this scheme, and, as all were poor, it was given 
up. After visiting Germany, Coleridge went 
to live at the English Lakes where Southey 
and Wordsworth were. To quiet his nerves, 
he began to use opium, and became its slave. 
His wife and children left him and went to live 
with Southey, whose wife was a sister of Cole- 
ridge's wife. He then lived for eighteen years 
with a Mr. Gillman, who provided him with a 
home till death. 

Coleridge possessed great intellectual power. 
He was a marvelous talker and young men 
used to go miles to hear him. 

Coleridge's best poems are The Ancient Mari- 
ner^ Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Hyjnn in the 
Vale of Chamouni, 

Robert Soutliey {i'/'//f.-i84.f). 

This poet was the son of a linen draper at 
Bristol. In 1 804 he went to live at Greta Hall, 
near Keswick, in the English Lake region, 
where he spent the rest of his life. His chief 
poetical works, Madoc, Thalaba, Kehama, and 
Don Roderick, were never very popular. His 
prose writings are the best, the Life of Nelson 



154 

being well known. In 1813 Southey was ap- 
pointed poet-laureate. 

William Wordsworth {lyy 0-18^0). 

This chief of the Lake Poets was born in 
Cumberland amidst the lakes and mountains 
he loved so well. He was educated at Cam- 
bridge. His first poems, published in 1793, 
received little public attention. The poet 
was poor, but in 1795, a young friend, named 
Calvert, died, leaving Wordsworth the sum of 
900 pounds. On this he and his sister Doro- 
thy lived for sixteen years. Meantime he con- 
tinued writing poetry, and in 1 798 he and his 
friend Coleridge published a joint volume of 
poems. After a short tour in Germany with 
his sister and Coleridge, Wordsworth went to 
his native Cumberland, and lived there till his. 
death. He first settled at Grasmere, but finally 
went to Rydal Mount, where he lived nearly 
forty years. 

Wordsworth is the great poet of Nature. He 
loved to see and to write about flowers, birds, 
lambs, children, lakes, and mountains. His 
chief poem is The Excursion, but his short 
poems are full of pathos and tenderness. 

On the death of Southey, in 1843, Words- 
worth was made poet laureate. 



155 

After being educated at Winchester and Oxford 
he entered the church. He was the original 
projecter of the Edinburgh Review, which was 
started in 1802. In a speech against the action 
of the House of Lords in 1831 he showed his 
peculiar humor by the story of '* Mrs. Parting- 
ton." *' I do not mean to be disrespectful, but 
the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of 
reform reminds me very forcibly of the great 
storm of Sidmouth and of the conduct of the 
excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In 
the winter of 1824 there set in a great flood 
upon the town — the tide rose to an incredible 
height — the waves rushed upon the houses — 
and everything was threatened with destruction. 
In the midst of this sublime storm Dame Part- 
ington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at 
the door of her house, with mop and pattens, 
trundling her mop and squeezing out the sea 
water and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic 
Ocean. Tlie Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Part- 
ington's spirit was up, but I need not tell you 
that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic 
Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent 
at a slop or a puddle, but she should not have 
meddled with a tempest." 

Sydney Smith's writings were mostly on pass- 
ing events but they are likely to be permanent 
by reason of their clear and vigorous reasoning 
and rich humor. He was manly, fearless, and 
independent. 



156 

Sir Walter Scott (lyyi-iSjz). 

Though Scott reached mature life in the 
eighteenth century, most of his literary work 
was produced in the nineteenth. 

He was born in Edinburgh and was educated 
at the high school and the university of that 
city. As a child he was feeble and sickly, and 
when quite young was smitten with lameness, 
which remained through life, but he became a 
man of robust health. 

Most of Scott's childhood was passed on the 
farm of his grandfather, where he became 
acquainted with the ballads and legends of 
Scotland. He was a great reader and remem- 
bered all he read. After getting his education 
he studied law in his father's office, but his 
mind was bent toward literature. He began 
by translating several poems from the German. 
In 1805 he published his Lay of the Last 
Minstrel, which made him the most popular 
author of the day. Marmion appeared in 1808, 
and The Lady of tJie Lake in 18 10. Other poems 
followed till 1 8 14, when the early enthusiasm 
of the public seemed to diminish, and another 
poet — Byron — appeared as a star of brighter 
luster. 

Scott's first novel, Waverly, which appeared 
in 1 8 14, without his name, was a great success, 
and from that time till his death his prose 
works held control of the public. The Great 



157 

Utiknow7i, as lie was called, was found to be 
Scott. Large sales brouglit him wealth. He 
lived at Abbotsford, which he had purchased 
in 1811, spending immense sums upon it. 
Scott was a generous giver, and his house was 
filled with gay company. He became ambitious 
to establish a family that would rank with the 
nobility. Unfortunately he w^as induced to 
join in establishing a printing business in 
Edinburgh. The business was badly managed 
and failed, and Scott was made bankrupt. 
Leaving Abbotsford, he hired lodgings in Edin- 
burgh, and labored with his pen to pay off the 
enormous debt. In two years he paid 40,000 
pounds, but the labor broke him down. In 
1836 he was smitten with paralysis. He went 
to Italy, but pined for Abbotsford, and returned 
there to die. He was buried beside his wife in 
the old Abbey of Dryburgh. Scarcely any 
novelist of our language has been so popular. 
He was often called the Wizard of the North. 

Thomas Campbell {^ly'jj-iS^/j). 

This distinguished poet was born in Glasgow, 
where his father was a merchant. Thomas 
was the youngest of ten children. 

After studying at the university of his native 
city he was for a year a tutor on the island of 
Mull. Then he began to study law, but the 
scenery of Mull was so vividly present in his 
mind that he neglected law and wrote poetry. 



158 

In 1799 Campbell published The Pleasures of 
Hope, which made him famous. He then went 
to the continent, and saw from a Bavarian 
monastery the battle of Hohenlinden, fought 
between the French and Austrians. On his 
return to Scotland he wrote a poem, which 
Walter Scott much admired, describing the 
battle. In 1809, he published Gertrude of 
Wyoming. His naval odes, such as Ye Mariners 
of England, and Tlie Battle of the Baltic, are 
without a parallel in our language. 

Campbell died at Bologne, and was buried in 
Westminster Abbey. 

HOHENLINDEN. 

On Linden, when the snn was low 
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, 
And dark as winter was the flow 
Of Iser rolling rapidly. 

But Linden saw another sight, 
When the drum beat at dead of night 
Commanding fires of death to light 
The darkness of her scenery. 

By torch and trumpet fast arrayed 
Each horseman drew his battle blade, 
And furious every charger neighed 
To join the dreadful revelry. 

Then shook the hills with thunder riven ; 
Then rushed the steed to battle driven; 
And louder than the bolts of Heaven 
Far flashed the red artillery. 



159 

But redder yet that light shall glow 
On Linden's hills of stained snow ; 
And bloodier yet the torrent flow 
Of Iser rolling rapidly. 

'Tis morn ; but scarce yon level sun 
Can pierce the war-clouds rolling dun, 
Where furious Frank and fiery Hun 
Shout in their sulphurous canopy. 

The combat deepens. On, ye brave, 
Who rush to glory, or the grave ! 
Wave Munich, all thy banners wave. 
And charge with all thy chivalry. 

Few, few shall part, where many meet ! 
The snow shall be their winding sheet, 
And every turf beneath their feet 
Shall be a soldier's sepulchre. 

Lord Byron i^ij 88-1824). 

Byron was of a noble family, the descendant 
of a Norman kniglit, who came to England with 
the Conqueror. In his eleventh year he in- 
herited Newstead Abbey, near Nottingham, 
from a grand uncle. In 1807 while at Trinity 
College, Byron's first volume of verse, called 
Hours of Idleness, appeared. It was severely 
criticised by the Edinburgh Review, and Byron 
answered the criticism with a satire called 
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, winning 
much praise thereby. Then followed the first 
part of Childe Harold, The Giaour, TJie Bride of 
Abydos, and The Corsair, which kindled a flame 
of popularity that threw Scott's poetry into the 



i6o 

shade. Owing to a quarrel with his wife, how- 
ever, Byron became quite unpopular, and he 
left England for the continent. From this time 
his poetry shows a marked advance in depth 
and beauty. In Switzerland he wrote TJie 
Prisoner of CJiillon. In Italy he finished CJiilde 
Harold^ and wrote The Vision of Judgment. In 
the summer of 1823 he sailed for Greece to help 
that country in its struggle against Turkey 
with his influence and his money. In the 
course of three months he succeeded in bring- 
ing order out of confusion, but his health 
failed. In April, 1824, he was caught in a 
shower, while riding horseback, and took a 
severe cold, which caused his death. The body 
was taken to England, but was refused a place 
in Westminster Abbey. It rests in the village 
church of Hucknall, near Newstead. 

Byron, like Scott, was lame from childhood. 
Few men have so excited the alternate admira- 
tion and scorn of mankind. His dissipation 
and immorality brought upon him the dislike 
of many who admired his wonderful intellect- 
ual gifts. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley {i'/g2-i822). 

Shelley may fairly be considered the greatest 
poetical genius of his time. He was of slender 
form with an effeminate face, and much of his 
short life was spent in sickness and sorrow. 
As a boy he was shy and sensitive, but self- 



#: 







WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 



i6i 

willed. At Eton, and afterwards at Oxford 
university, from which he was expelled for 
avowed atheism, he showed remarkable inde- 
pendence of spirit. His father would have 
nothing to do with him, and refused to furnish 
him money. Shelley's first published poem, 
Alastor, appeared in 1815, and was one of his 
best workSo Some of his finest poems are, 
The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus, Adonais, and 
The Witch of Atlas. 

While in Switzerland Shelley met Byron, and 
afterwards joined him in Italy. One day in 
April, 1822, while Shelley and a friend were 
sailing in the Gulf of Spezzia, a sudden squall 
upset the boat and both were drowned. The 
bodies were washed ashore and were burned, 
according to the laws of the country, in the 
presence of Byron and other friends. Shelley's 
ashes were buried in the Protestant cemetery 
near Rome. 

Shelley's Ode to a Skylark is one of the finest 
poems in the English language. 

John Keats {iyg6~i82i). 

Keats was born in London. While young he 
was apprenticed to a surgeon, but he was by 
nature gifted with poetic genius. He published 
his first volume of poems in 18 17, and it was 
savagely attacked in some of the magazines. 
His Eve of St. A 'j^iies, and the Ode to a Nightin- 
gale, are of great beauty. His health being 



l62 

delicate lie went to Italy, and died at Rome in 
1 82 1. A few days before death lie said, " I feel 
the daisies growing over me." Shelley's ashes 
were buried beside him in the following year. 

Thomas Moore {i'/jg-i8^2). 

This poet was born in Dublin, the son of a 
grocer, and was educated at the university 
there. He showed his poetic talent in early 
life, and was a friend of Byron, Shelley, and 
Leigh Hunt. He is chiefly famous for his 
Irish Melodies and Lalla Rookh, the latter an 
oriental poem. 

THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS. 

Oft in the stilly night 

Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
Fond Memory brings the light 
Of other days around me. 
The smiles, the tears 
Of boyhood's years, 
The words of love then spoken ; 
The eyes that shone, 
Now dimmed and gone, 
The cheerful hearts now broken ! 
Thus in the stilly night 

Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
Sad Memory brings the light 
Of other days around me. 

When I remember all 
The friends so linked together 

I've seen around me fall 

Like leaves in wintry weather, 



i63 

I feel like one 
Who treads alone 
Some banquet-hall deserted, 
Whose lights are fled, 
Whose garlands dead. 
And all but he departed ! 
Thus in the stilly night 

Ere slumber's chain has bound me. 
Sad Memory brings the light 
Of other days around me. 

T. Moore. 

Thomas Hood {lygS-iS/fj). 

Thomas Hood was born in London. After 
leaving school he was first a clerk, then an 
engraver, and finally turned to literature. He 
excelled both as a prose writer and a poet. 
Most of Hood's prose is humorous. His poetry 
is serious and full of pathos. His best poems 
are Eugene Arams Dream, Song of the Shirt, and 
Bridge of Sighs. 

PAST AND PRESENT. 

I remember, I remember 

The house where I was born. 
The little window where the sun 

Came peeping in at morn ; 
He never came a wink too soon 

Nor brought too long a day ; 
But now I often wish the night 

Had borne my breath away. 

I remember, I remember 

The roses red and white 
The violets and the lily-cups, 

Those flowers made of light ! 



164 

The lilacs where the robin built, 

And where my brother set 
The laburnum on his birthday, — 

The tree is living yet ! 

I remember, I remember 

Where I was used to swing, 
And thought the air must rush as fresh 

To swallows on the wing ; 
My spirit flew in feathers then 

That is so heavy now, 
And summer pools could hardly cool 

The fever on my brow. 

I remember, I remember 

The fir trees, dark and high ; 
I used to think their slender tops 

Were close against the sky ; 
It was a childish ignorance. 

But now 'tis little joy 
To know I'm farther off from Heaven 

Than when I was a boy. 

T. Hood. 

Mrs. He^nans {lygS-iSj^). 

This sweet poet was born in Liverpool, and 
early showed facility in writing poetry. Her 
first volume was published when she was only 
fourteen years of age. Her best poems are The 
Graves of a Household, The Treasures of the Deep, 
the The Homes of England, and The Landing of 
the Pilgrim Fathers in New England, • 



i65 

Charles Lamb {ly/^-iSjf). 

Few writers have equaled Lamb for grace, 
tenderness, and humor. He was born in Lon- 
don, and was educated at Christ's Hospital. 
He was a friend of Coleridge, Wordsworth, 
Hunt, and other literary men of his day. 
Lamb was never married, but lived with a 
sister, who was subject to fits of insanity, in one 
of which she killed her mother. His poetry is 
little read, but his Essays of Elia are deservedly 
popular. Many a one has enjoyed Lamb's 
dissertation on Roast Pig. 

Leigh Hunt {lyS^-iSjC}). 

This friend of Byron, Shelley, and Keats 
was born before any of them and outlived them 
all. Hunt was both a poet and a prose writer. 
He was once fined 500 pounds and imprisoned 
for two years for Avriting that the Prince Re- 
gent, who afterwards became King George IV, 
was ''a fat Adonis of fifty." Most of Hunt's 
prose writings consist of essays. One of Hunt's 
best poems is that on Sultan MaJinioud. 

Edward Buhver {Lord Lyttoji) {iSoj-iSyj). 

Bui we r wrote many works of fiction. His 
first novel, Pelhain, was interesting, but artifi- 
cial. By diligence and determination he be- 
came a brilliant Avriter. The Last Days of 
Pompeii, and Rienzi are pOAverful, instructive, 
and much admired. Bulwer also wrote several 



i66 

dramas, two of which, The Lady of Lyojts and 
Richelieu, are still popular plays. The Caxtons 
and My Novel are specimens of his best work. 

TJwnias De Quincey (lySS-iS^g), 

De Quincey was the son of a wealthy mer- 
chant of Manchester. While at Oxford he 
began to use opium, to which he afterwards 
became a slave. In his Co7tfessioits of an Opium 
Eater he describes the horrible dreams caused 
by the drug. After a time he succeeded in 
freeing himself from the habit and became a 
brilliant writer. 



CHAPTER X. . 

The Victorian Age of English Literature. 

The period from the year 1837 to the present 
time may well be described as the Victorian 
Age. Before the accession of Queen Victoria, 
the great writers of the early part of the cen- 
tury were either dead or had ceased to write. 
Scott, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Lamb, 
and others were gone. Wordsworth, Southey, 
Campbell, De Quincey, and a few others were 
living, but had done their best work. A new 
era was opening in literature, as in science, in 
manufactures, in commerce, and in the rela- 
tions of the different classes of society to one 
another. A new order of writing has arisen ; 
new subjects have been chosen. The great 
writers of our day have cared not so much to 
write elegantly as to reform society, and to 
declare the brotherhood of mankind. The 
literature of the Victorian Age is full of 
strength, vitality, courage. It is learned, criti- 
cal, scientific, and pure. "It is glowing and 
warm with the spirit of sympathy for all men. 
There is no fixed style either in poetry or in 
prose. Each writer says what he has to say in 
his own way. The Victorian Age has produced 

(167) 



i68 

a number of remarkable writers in the various 
departments of literature. 

Harriet Martineau {1802- iSyS) was the 
daughter of a manufacturer of Huguenot 
descent living at Norwich. At an early age 
she loved books, and began to put her thoughts 
into writing. She became very deaf in youth, 
but this misfortune no doubt contributed to her 
success in literature by shutting out many 
little distractions and enabling her more easily 
to concentrate her thoughts. 

After the death of her father the family was 
reduced almost to poverty, and it was necessary 
for Harriet to earn her own living. As her 
deafness prevented her from teaching, she took 
up authorship. Her first literary work was for 
a religious magazine, and she eked out her 
slender income by needle-work. 

After writing several books Miss Martineau 
went to London, where her success as an author 
had prepared for her a hearty welcome. She 
was exceedingly versatile, and excelled as a 
writer on all sorts of subjects, for she was a 
political economist, historian, biographer, and 
journalist. Her work is full of vigorous thought 
clearly stated. Her books number more than 
one hundred. 

In 1834 Miss Martineau visited the United 
States. Her sympathy with the Abolitionists, 
then much despised, made her unpopular here. 




THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 



i69 

For the last thirty years of her life her home 
was at Ambleside, in the beautiful English lake 
region, but she was fond of travel, and made 
several journeys to foreign lands. She was 
probably the most persevering and successful 
literary English woman of the nineteenth 
century. 

Charles Dickens {j8i2-i86g). 

Dickens had little school education, but he 
was a close observer and a great reader. His 
first work was as a parliamentary reporter, and 
in doing it he showed remarkable ability. His 
literary talent was first shown in Sketches by B02, 
published in 1837. He then wrote Pickwick 
Papers, in which the life of the middle and 
lower classes is exhibited. It is doubtful if any 
work, before or since, has produced more merri- 
ment than these Papers, so full are they of 
healthy animal spirits and wholesome humor. 

Then followed NicJiolas Nickleby, a story 
aimed at the Avrongs inflicted upon the young 
by unfit schoolmasters. 

Master Hiiniplirey s Clock, and Old Curiosity 
Shop, set forth child life and thought. Barnaby 
Rudge and a Tale of Two Cities describe the past, 
and are both excellent novels. 

David Copper field is considered the best of all 
Dickens' works and is largely an autobiography. 
We cannot here mention all his works. They 
make a long list. Dickens became wealthy, 



I/O 

leaving at his death a fortune of 100,000 pounds. 
He twice visited America. After his first visit 
in 1842, he published American Notes, which 
excited much ill feeling against him on this 
side of the Atlantic. On his second visit in 1 867, 
he gave readings from his own works, and was 
cordially welcomed everywhere. 

He died suddenly at his home, called Gad's 
Hill, in Kent, and was buried in Westminster 
Abbey. He was the most popular author of 
the century, and his writings did much to 
awaken sympathy for the poor and unfortunate. 

Thomas Carlyle {ijg^-1881). 

Thomas Carlyle was born in the town of 
Ecclefechan in Scotland. After graduating at 
Edinburgh University he began to study theol- 
ogy, but it was not to his liking and he turned 
to literature. Some of his early work consisted 
of translations from the German, and it was 
severely criticised in some quarters. While liv- 
ing at Craigenputtock for some years, he 
thought, studied, and wrote, till the world 
acknowledged his power. He went to London, 
making his home at Chelsea for many years. 
Some of Carlyle 's chief works are Sartor Resartus 
(The Tailor Done Over,) in which he shows 
how little there is left of many persons after 
the artificial part of them is removed, A History 
of the French Revolution ; Frederick the Great ; 
Heroes and Hero Worship; and a Life of Cromwell. 



Carlyle's strong, fearless writings offended 
many, but lie did much to sweep away shams 
and to uphold simplicity and truth. His 
remains were taken to his native village for 
burial. 

William Makepeace Thackeray {i8ii-i86j). 

Thackeray, like Dickens, loved humanity and 
hated all forms of injustice. He was born at 
Calcutta, where his father was in the service 
of the East India Company. The fortune of 
20,000 pounds, left him by his father, was lost by 
speculation at Paris. After producing a num- 
ber of stories, he published Vanity Fair, which 
made him famous. After this came Pendennis, 
The Newcomes and other less known works, some 
of which were illustrated by himself. 

Thackeray's keen satire and ridicule of snobs 
delighted common people, but awakened the 
dislike of others. He was always gentle and 
tender-hearted toward the unfortunate. 

Thomas Babington Macaiilay {i 800-1 8^ g). 

Like many other leading writers of the nine- 
teenth century, Macaulay was of Scotch descent. 
At Cambridge he gained a brilliant reputation 
as a scholar and writer. After graduation he 
devoted himself to literature, and in 1825 he 
published his famous essay on Milton. Five 
years later he became a member of Parliament, 
and began a political career of great usefulness 



and honor. In 1842 Macaulay published a 
series of martial ballads called Lays of Ancient 
Rome. His literary works included numerous 
essays, but he is best known for his History of 
England from the accession of James 11. This 
work caused considerable excitement both at 
home and abroad. Its style is brilliant, elegant, 
clear, and strong. Macaulay was a man of 
splendid talents, and wide learning. He was 
buried in Westminster Abbey. 



Robert Browning {181 2-1 c 

Some persons consider Browning to be the 
leading poet of the Victorian Age. His poems 
are of great depth, delicacy, and vigor, but to 
hasty readers they often seem obscure. His 
popularity must always be confined to a few 
persons of cultivated taste. Some of Brown- 
ing's most important works are, Paracelsus, Men 
and Women, The Ring and the Book. His most 
popular poem is The Pied Piper of Hamelin, 
written "for a child. 

Mrs. E. B. Browning {i 8og-i 861). 

Mrs. Browning ranks among the leading 
English poets of our time, and she is probably 
the greatest female poet of all past time. She 
was born in London, and received the highest 
education. Her first poem, TJie Seraphim, ap- 
peared in 1838. Owing to delicate health, 
caused by the rupture of a blood vessel in the 



173 

lungs and the drowning of a favorite brother, 
she lived for some years in seclusion. When 
health was restored, in 1846, she married 
Robert Browning, another great poet. 

Mrs. Browning's poetry is full of deep feel- 
ing and noble sentiment. She died at Florence. 

A If red Tennyson {i8og-i 8g2) . 

Tennyson is rightly called the King of Eng- 
lish Song. He was born at Somersby, in Lin- 
colnshire, the son of a clergyman and the third 
child in a large family. It was not till the age 
of sixteen that his poetic gift was discovered in 
the following manner. One Sunday, when 
Alfred was too ill to attend church, his brother 
Charles suggested that he should try to write 
a poem. He did so and thus found out that he 
had the ability to express thought poetically. 
In 1827 Charles and Alfred published a small 
volume, called Poems of Two Brothers. At Cam- 
bridge Alfred gained a medal for a poem with 
the singular name, Timbuctoo. His first volume 
of his own poems, issued in 1830, met with 
little favor and much criticism. In 1842 he 
published another volume, which gave him the 
first place as an English poet. In Menioriani, 
the most admired of Tennyson's poems, is a 
tribute of affection to Arthur Hallam, a friend ' 
of his youth. In TJie Idylls of the King Tenny- 
son revived the legends of Arthur, Merlin, and 
the Knights of the Round Table. With won- 



174 

derful skill he made the names and deeds of 
these ancient heroes charming to us of modern 
days. 

Some of Tennyson's most popular short 
poems are, The Northern Farmer, written in 
Lincolnshire dialect ; The Brook ; and The 
Charge of the Light Brigade. 

No modern writer, except Scott, was held in 
such love and honor during his lifetime. His 
poetry charms all hearts, for it is pure, tender, 
sweet, and noble. Tennyson lived mostly a re- 
tired life at Farringford, in the Isle of Wight. 
He was often gruff to strangers who went to see 
him, but warm-hearted to those who knew him 
well. He was appointed poet laureate in 1850. 

'' George Eliot " {1820-1880), 

This was the assumed name of Marian 
Evans, one of the greatest English novelists, 
and probably the foremost literary woman of 
her day. Her learning was wide and exact. 
Her first novel, Scenes of Clerical Life, proved 
that a new writer of great freshness and power 
had arisen, and there was great curiosity to 
know who it was. Succeeding volumes added 
to her reputation. Adam Bede is generally con- 
sidered her best work. Her style is pure and 
forcible. Her characters are possessed of an 
earnest purpose striving against adverse cir- 
cumstances. 



175 

Charlotte Bronte {i8i6-i8jf). 

This distinguished novelist, the daughter of 
a clergyman of Irish descent, was born in York- 
shire. The mother died when Charlotte was 
quite young, leaving six children to the care of 
the eccentric father. When Charlotte was 
eight years old, she was sent with three of her 
sisters to a boarding school, where her two 
eldest sisters soon died, and Charlotte returned 
home out of health. At another school her re- 
markable talents were seen, and in after years 
she became a teacher there. In 1842 Charlotte 
and her sister Emily went to Brussels to better 
qualify themselves for teaching, but, on return- 
ing home in i8z|4, a new shadow darkened their 
lives. Their father was growing blind, and 
their only brother was wild. The sisters then 
turned their attention to literature. Charlotte's 
first novel, The Professor, was refused by one 
publisher after another, but her next, Jajte 
Eyre, took the public by storm. In 1 848 Emily 
died, and in the same year her brother died 
also. Charlotte was left alone with her aged 
father, but she kept on writing. She was 
married in 1854, but died the next year. 

Hugh Miller {i 802-1856). 

Hugh Miller was born in Scotland. His edu- 
cation was limited and he was a stone mason by 
trade, but he loved reading and was a close 
observer of nature. While working at his 



1/6 

trade he studied the rocks and made important 
discoveries in geology. He gave the results of 
his discoveries in The Old Red Sandstone, Foot- 
prints of the Creator, and Testimony of the Rocks. 
Other works were, My Schools and Schoolmasters, 
The Cruise of the Betsy, and Impressions ^f Eng- 
land a7td its People. Miller's literary style was 
clear and elegant. Owing to overwork he be- 
came insane and took his own life.. 

Charles Kingsley {iSig-iSy^). 

Charles Kingsley was born in Devonshire 
and educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, 
where he was a fine scholar. He entered the 
church and became rector of Eversley, in 
Hampshire. He was an earnest friend of the 
working-classes, and all his writings were in- 
tended to better their condition Alton Locke, 
a novel of great power, was the story of a tailor 
in a London workshop. Yeast showed the con- 
dition of the agricultural laborer. Hypatia, or 
New Foes with an Old Face, describes the conflict 
of Christianity against Gothic paganism and 
Greek philosophy. Westward Ho, the greatest 
of Kingsley's works, contains glowing pictures 
of South American forests, which he had seen 
only in imagination. Rereward, the Last of the 
English, describes the struggle of the Saxons 
against the Norman conquerors. Kingsley was 
a man of great energy and unflinching moral 
courage. 



177 

Eliza Cook {i8i8-i88g) was born at South- 
wark, near London. At twenty years of age 
she gained a good reputation as a poet. In 
1840 she published Melaia and other Poems, of 
which many editions have been sold in England 
and America. Several of her poems, The Old 
Ann-Chair, The Old Farm Gate, The Last Good 
Bye, and / Miss Thee, My Mother, are full of ten- 
der sentiment and are loved by thousands of 
young and old. Miss Cook did much to make 
good literature popular, for all she wrote was 
pure and good. 

THE OLD ARM-CHAIR. 

I love it, I love it, and who shall dare 

To chide me for loving that old arm-chair ? 

I've treasured it long as a sainted prize, 

I've bedewed it with tears and embalmed it with sighs; 

'Tis bound by a thousand bands to my heart ; 

Not a tie will break, not a link will start. 

Would you learn the spell? A mother sat there. 

And a sacred thing is that old arm-chair. 

In childhood's hour I lingered near 

The hallowed seat with listening ear ; 

And gentle words that mother would give. 

To fit me to die and teach me to live, 

She told me shame would never betide. 

With truth for my creed and God for my guide ; 

She taught me to lisp my earliest prayer. 

As I knelt beside that old arm-chair. 

I sat and watched her many a day 
When her eye grew dim and her locks were gray ; 
And I almost worshiped her when she smiled 
And turned from her Bible to bless her child. 



178 

Years rolled on but the last one sped — 
My idol was shattered, my earth-star fled ; 
1 learned how much the heart can bear, 
When I saw her die in that old arm-chair. 

'Tis past ! 'tis past ! but I gaze on it now 
With quivering breath and throbbing brow : 
'Twas there she nursed me, 'twas there she died' 
And lava flows with lava tide. . 
Say it is folly and deem me weak 
While the scalding drops start down my cheek ; 
But I love it, I love it, and cannot tear 
My soul from a mother's old arm-chair. 

Dinah MulocJi (Craik) {1826-188'/) is generally 
spoken of as the author of John Halifax, her 
most famous though not her best book. As 
Miss Muloch did not afhx her name to it another 
person claimed to have written it, but she 
refuted the claim. John Halifax is written with 
much skill and is designed to show the career of 
a perfect man from boyhood to age. Among 
her books written for children are Rhodas Les- 
son^ A Hero, and Bread upon tJie Waters. At one 
time her works were more widely read than 
those of any other English author except 
Dickens. 

• Alfred Austin, the successor of Tennyson as 
poet laureate, was appointed to that office in 
1895, when sixty years of age. He began life 
as a barrister but soon turned to literary work. 
His first poem, Randolph, was published in his 




HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 



179 

nineteenth year. He need not be compared 
with Tennyson, Wordsworth, and others who 
have adorned the office of laureate, for the 
appointment is not intended to point out the 
greatest poet of England. The laureateship is 
simply an honor granted by royalty to some 
good poet whose writings are pure, and only 
involves the duty of giving expression to 
important national events in graceful verse. 

James AntJiony Froude {i8i8-i8(p//) was educated 
at Oxford and intended to be a clergyman, but 
under the influence of the Tractarians his views 
were modified and he turned his attention to 
history. The first volume of his famous History 
of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat 
of the Armada, appeared in 1856 and the last in 
1869. Oceana contained the result of his obser- 
vations while traveling extensively among the 
English colonies. Among his other publica- 
tions are Short Studies on Great Siibjeets, Julius 
Ccesar, The Tivo CJiiefs of Dunboy, an historical 
novel. The Spanish Story of the Armada, and 7'he 
Life and Letters of Erasmus. 

Walter Besant was born at Portsmouth in 1838 
and is a graduate of Cambridge. In conjunc- 
tion with James Rice he published about a 
dozen volumes of fiction between 1871 and 1882. 
Some of these are Ready Money Mortiboy, The 
Monks of Thelema, By Celiacs Arbour. Since the 



i8o 

death of Mr. Rice lie has produced a number of 
novels dealing with social problems. Among 
the most popular of these is All Sorts and Condi- 
tions of Men, which led to the establishment of 
a " People's Palace " in the East End of Lon- 
don to commemorate the Queen's Jubilee. 

Robert Louis Stevenson {18^0-18(^4), born in 
Edinburgh, was one of the most remarkable 
literary men of his time. His father and grand- 
father were eminent lighthouse engineers and 
Robert was intended for the same calling. He, 
however, did not want to be a civil engineer 
and tried the law but found it distasteful to him, 
so he determined to be a man of letters. On 
account of poor health he began at the age of 
twenty-three those wanderings about the earth 
which gave rise to some of his most attractive 
books. Ordered South, Travels with a Donkey, An 
Inland Voyage, Across the Plains, and TJie Silver 
Squatter. The two last-named books were the 
result of a steerage trip to America in 1879 ^^^ 
a journey to the Pacific Coast on an emigrant 
train. In 1887 he again visited America and 
spent a winter in the Adirondacks. The follow- 
ing summer he went to the Samoan Islands, 
where he settled down and lived till his death, 
and where his best work was done. 

Though much of his work was done with 
death staring him in the -face, it is yet full of 
cheerfulness. Some of Mr. Stevenson's novels 



I8l 

are Prince Otto, The Black Arrow, The Strange 
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Master of 
Ballantrae, Kidnapped, New Arabian Nights, and 
Treasure Island. His last work, Weir of Her- 
miston, was not finished. He was buried on the 
summit of a mountain overlooking his Samoan 
home. 

Rev. S. R. Crockett, a noted Scotch writer, was 
born in Scotland in 1859 ^^^ educated at Edin- 
burgh University. His first published work 
was a volume of verse. His first prose work. 
The Stickit Minister, made the author famous. 
The Raiders describes a feud between Scotch 
clans a hundred and fifty years ago. The Men 
of the Moss Hags is a thrilling story of the hero- 
ism of the Covenanters under persecution ; Mad 
Sir Uchtred of the Hills is a beautiful little story 
of two brothers who became estranged through 
the bad conduct of one of them, but were finally 
reunited. 

John Watson (Ian Maclaren) was born in Scot- 
land and is a Presbyterian minister in Liver- 
pool. His first book, Beside the Bonnie Brier 
Bush, established his fame, and The Days of 
Auld Lang Syne is equally successful. 



l82 

John Ruskin. 

Probably no English writer has done so much 
to create a love of art as John Ruskin, who was 
born in London in 1819, and graduated at Ox- 
ford in 1842. He has written fiercely against 
greed for wealth and love of show and stupid 
self-satisfaction. He has tried to make people 
see the .beauty in nature, in the best pictures, 
and in the noblest forms of architecture. 
Among his works are. The Seven Lamps of 
Architecture, The Stones of Venice, The Two Paths, 
and Moderji Painters. 

George Macdonald w2iS born in Scotland in 1824. 
He became an Independent minister, then a 
layman in the Established Church, and turned 
his attention to literature. His writings com- 
prise a large number of works of a moral and 
religious nature, mostly in the form of novels. 
Some of his best books are David Elginbrod, 
A lee Forbes, Robe rt Falconer, The Vicar s Daughter, 
Malcolm, Sir Gibbie, The Seaboard Parish, and 
Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood. In 1877 a 
government pension of 100 pounds was granted 
him for his services to literature. 

Thomas Hughes (i 823-1 896) was a lawyer, 
but was also the author of several noteworthy 
books. He was educated at Rugby under the 
noted educator. Dr. Thomas Arnold. In 1856 
he published Tom Brozvns School Days, one of 
the best books in the world for a boy. In 1861 
he gave to the world Tom Brown at Oxford. 




JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 



i83- 

Other books by Mr. Hughes are, The Scouring 
of the White Horse, Alfred the Great, and The 
Manliness of Christ. 

He has done a great deal to reconcile work- 
men and their employers. 

Besides the writers thus far mentioned, many 
others have done or are still doing first-class 
work in the several departments of literature. 
Among novelists are the names of Anthony 
TroUope, who found time in a busy life to write 
a large number of interesting works of fiction ; 
Charles Reade, whose Cloister and Hearth is one 
of the finest novels of modern times; R. D. 
Blackmore, whose Lorna Doone is a powerful 
story of an outlawed family; Rider Haggard, 
whose stories are startling and grotesque ; Rud- 
yard Kipling, the delineator of barrack life in 
India ; Wilkie Collins, Walter Besant, Miss 
Oliphant, and a host of others. 

Among poets are Swinburne, William Morris, 
and Rossetti (died 1882), among writers on crit- 
icism, morals, or literature, Matthew Arnold 
(died 1888), Henry Drummond, and John Mor- 
ley, among writers on science, John Tyndall 
(died 1893), and Thomas Huxley (died 1895). 

The great poets of the Victorian Age have 
all passed away both in England and America, 
nor is it likely that others equal to them will 
arise till some great political or social upheaval 
rekindles the poetic fire that lies slumbering 
in the Anglo-Saxon race. 



AMERICAN LITERATURE, 



CHAPTER XL 
/. Early Writers, 

For a century and more, after New England 
was first settled, American literature was but a 
continuation and a reflection of that of the 
mother country. Most of the books read here 
were brought from England, and some of the 
first books written by early American writers 
were printed across the water. A printing 
press was set up at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
in 1639, and one of the first books printed on it 
was the Bay State Psalm Book. This was prob- 
ably the first book both written and printed in 
New England. Nearly all the American liter- 
ature of the seventeenth century was of a theo- 
logical character and was the work of ministers. 
Among these early theological writers were 
Increase Mather and his son Cotton Mather 
of Massachusetts; also Thomas Hooker, the 
founder of Hartford, and Roger Williams the 
founder of Rhode Island. 

John Eliofs Indian Bible. 

One work of the seventeenth century deserv- 
ing especial mention was Eliofs Indian Bible, a 

(184) 



i85 

translation of the English Bible into the Indian 
language by Rev. John Eliot. The New Testa- 
ment appeared in 1661 and the whole Bible in 
1663. This translation was entirely the work 
of Eliot himself. It was printed at Cambridge 
and was the first Bible printed in America. 
The tribes for whom this translation was made 
have disappeared, and only one or two persons 
now living are able to read it. 

JonatJian Edwards. 

American literature may be said to have be- 
gun with Jonathan Edwards, who was the first 
great writer educated in an American college, 
and the first American writer to obtain fame in 
Europe. Harvard college, founded in 1636, 
and Yale college, founded in 1 700, fostered that 
early culture which took on an American shape 
and character. Jonathan Edwards (i 703-1 747) 
Avas born in East Windsor, Conn. He gradu- 
ated at Yale in 1720, when only seventeen years 
of age. As a preacher and writer he was both 
deep and clear, and he excelled in metaphysics. 
His chief works were The Religions Affections 
and TJie Freedom of the Will. They exerted a 
strong influence upon the minds of men in this 
country and in Europe for at least fifty years. 

Other distinguished American writers and 
preachers of the eighteenth century were Sam- 
uel Hopkins, Nathaniel Emmons, and Timothy 
Dwight, the latter being a grandson of Jona- 



1 86 

than Edwards, and president of Yale college 
from 1795 to 1 8 17. '' 

We liave seen that some of the leading 
American writers of the eighteenth century 
were theologians. During that century, how- 
ever, the minds of men were much turned to 
political questions. The relation of the colonies 
to the mother country and to one another 
caused great activity of thought, and produced 
a large number of pamphlets and addresses, 
which helped to bring about the American 
Revolution. 

Benjamin Franklin. 

The most remarkable American writer of the 
eighteenth century was Benjamin Franklin 
(i 706-1 790). Strangely enough, he was not a 
graduate of any college, but he was remarkably 
gifted by nature, and he made the very best 
use of those gifts. 

Benjamin was the fifteenth child in a family 
of seventeen children. He was the son of a 
tallow chandler of Boston, and at ten years of 
age he was taken from school that he might 
begin to earn his own living. After a time he 
was apprenticed as a printer to his brother 
James. At fifteen he began to write pieces for 
the New England Courant, a paper printed by 
his brother. Owing to harsh treatment from 
his brother, Benjamin ran away in 1723 and 
went to Philadelphia, where he found work at 



1 87 

his trade. Here, also, his pen was busy and his 
articles were eagerly read. In 1730 he bought 
out a newspaper, and through it he soon be- 
came a power in society, in politics, and litera- 
ture. Through his efforts a Public Library 
was founded, also the Academy of Philadelphia, 
now the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin 
wrote essays on all sorts of subjects, and for 
twenty-five years he published Poor Richard's 
Almanac. This Almanac contained many wise 
sayings and much excellent advice, which 
helped its readers to be prudent in the use of 
time and money. 

Franklin was a far-seeing statesman, and did 
his country good service as her representative 
abroad. 

TJie Federalist, At the close of the Revolu- 
tionary War a paper, called the Federalist, was 
published by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, 
and James Madison. It contained eighty-five 
essays in all, which were of great value in per- 
suading the people of the new nation to adopt 
the present Federal Constitution. These essays 
have been reprinted many times. 

After the inauguration of Washington as 
first President many newspapers were started 
in the United States. People in different parts 
of the country wanted to know what others 
were thinking and doing, both at home and 
abroad. 



CHAPTER XIL 

American Literature of the Nineteenth Century. 

I . The nineteenth century has witnessed a 
very remarkable advance in all departments of 
literature. In the early part of the century a 
religious controversy between the Congrega- 
tionalists and Unitarians in New England pro- 
duced a war of pamphlets between the leaders 
on both sides. One of the chief Unitarian 
writers was William Ellery Channing (1780- 
1842). He graduated at eighteen from Har- 
vard, and in 1803 he became pastor of a Boston 
church. 

He was an earnest opponent of slavery, and 
exerted a great influence by his numerous 
public addresses on the leading religious and 
political questions of the time. In 1828 his 
Life and Character of Napoleon Bonaparte was 
published and made him famous in Europe. 

Other leading religious writers of the nine- 
teenth century are Charles Hodge, professor in 
Princeton Theological Seminary, who wrote a 
famous work on Systematic Theology; James 
McCosh, a native of Ireland, who became presi- 
dent of Princeton College in 1868. 

(188) 



Mark Hopkins, president of Williams College, 
and Noah Porter, president of Yale, have 
written works of great value on Mental Science ; 
Francis Wayland, president of Brown Uni- 
versity, wrote on philosophy and political 
economy ; Philip Schaff, a native of Switzer- 
land, has written many important works, among 
which is a History of the Christian CJmrcJi ; 
Henry M. Dexter has written on Congregation- 
alism ; Henry Ward Beecher, besides being the 
leading American preacher of his day, was a 
lecturer and writer on many subjects ; Horace 
Bushnell of Hartford, John Hall and William 
M. Taylor of New York, and Phillips Brooks 
of Boston, have exerted a very wide influence 
not only in the pulpit, but also by their lectures 
or writings. President Woolsey of Yale Col- 
lege was not only a fine scholar, but also 
America's leading writer on International Law. 

American Poets. 

Fitz Greene Halleck (i 790-1 867) was a friend 
of Irving, Paulding, and Drake. He was 
born in Guilford, Conn., and also died there. 
In early life, he went to New York and was 
clerk in a bank, but was afterwards employed 
in the office of John Jacob Astor. His best 
poem is Marco Bozzaris. From 1849 "^^ ^^is 
death Halleck lived in Guilford, receiving a 
pension of $200 a year by the will of John 
Jacob Astor. 



190 

Mrs. Sigourney (Lydia Huntley), a popular 
poet of her day, was born at Norwich, Conn., 
in 1 79 1. In 1 8 14 she opened a select school at 
Hartford, and afterwards married a leading 
merchant of that city. Her poems were of a 
moral and religious nature and her writings 
were published in no less than forty-five vol- 
umes. She and her husband lived in a 
pleasant house in the suburbs of Hartford, but 
it is now far within the city limits. She died 
in 1865. 

John Howard Payne, who died at Tunis in 
1852 while serving as United States minister, 
wrote Home Sweet Home, the most popular song 
in the English language. 

Edgar Allan Poe (1809- 1849) was born in 
Boston. He was the grandson of General Poe, 
a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary 
War. On the death of his parents, Edgar was 
adopted by Mr. Allan of Virginia. Unfortu- 
nately Edgar had a passion for gambling He 
was turned away from the military academy at 
West Point for neglecting his studies and for 
drinking. He returned to Richmond and was 
again kindly received by Mr. Allan, but he con- 
tinued his excesses till his benefactor turned 
him out of the house. 

Before this, Edgar had written and published 
a collection of his poems. In 1833 a Baltimore 
publisher offered prizes for the best poem and 




HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 



191 

tlie best prose story, and Poe won both, prizes. 
After that he was engaged in literary work in 
New York and Philadelphia. Poe's best known 
poem is The Raven. 

It is thought by many that Poe's poetical 
genius was the finest and most original that 
America has yet produced, but his career was 
dark and sad. 

William Cullen Bryant (i 794-1 878) was born 
in Cummington, Mass., and was the son of the 
village doctor. He began to write poetry at 
ten years of age. After studying at Williams 
College he became a lawyer, but gave up the 
law for literature. In 181 7 his grand poem 
Thanatopsis appeared, proving him to be the 
greatest American poet that had thus far arisen. 
In 1825 Bryant went to live in New York and 
soon became editor of the Evening Post. All 
through his long life he was busy writing not 
only poetry, but prose also, on various literary 
and political subjects. Bryant's poetry reveals 
a deep insight into nature, profound religious 
feeling, and a love of liberty. His best poems 
besides Thanatopsis are, To a Waterfowl, A Forest 
Hymn, and, TJie Planting of the Apple Tree. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807- 1882) 
was born of well-to-do parents in Portland, 
Maine. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 
1825. Other members of this class, who after- 



192 

wards made a name in literature, were Natham 
iel Hawthorne, George B. Cheever, John S. C. 
Abbott, and S. S. Prentiss. It is a singular fact 
that the greatest poet and the greatest prose 
writer of America in our time graduated from 
the same college in the same class. Longfel- 
low, like Bryant, intended to be a lawyer, but, 
when only nineteen years of age, he was ap- 
pointed professor of modern languages at Bow- 
doin. After spending three years of prepara- 
tion in Europe he returned and entered upon 
his appointed work. He also began writing 
little poems and some prose. In 1835 he was 
appointed professor of modern languages at 
Harvard College. This position he held till 
1854, when he resigned and was succeeded by 
James Russell Lowell. Longfellow's home at 
Cambridge was the house occupied by Wash- 
ington in 1775 as his headquarters. 

Longfellow holds the first place among 
American poets. Some of his most popular 
poems are, A Psalm of Life, The Reaper and the 
Flowers, and Evangeline. One of his best simple 
poems is TJie Children s Honr. 

Children held a warm place in the great 
poet's heart. One Christmas day a gentleman, 
who was in the habit of dining with the poet 
every Saturday and on other special occasions, 
was walking briskly toward the old historic 
house, when a little girl, about twelve years of 
age, asked him the way to Longfellow's home. 



193 

He told her that it was some distance away, 
but that if she would walk with him he would 
show it to her. When they reached the gate 
he said, " Here it is." She asked, " Do you 
think I may go into the yard?" "Oh, yes," 
said he. " Do you see that room on the left ? 
That's where Martha Washington held her re- 
ceptions a hundred years ago. If you look at 
the windows on the right you will probably see 
a white-haired gentleman reading a paper. 
Well, that will be Mr. Longfellow." The 
little girl looked gratified at the prospect of 
seeing the man whose poems she said she 
loved. As they neared the house the gentle- 
man saw Mr. Longfellow standing with his 
back to the window and his head out of sight. 
When he went in the gentleman said, " Do 
look out of the window and bow to that little 
girl who wants to see you very much/' 

" A little girl wants to see me very much — 
where is she ? " Longfellow went to the door 
and beckoned with his hand, saying, ''Come 
here, little girl, come here, if you want to see 
me." She went bashfully up the steps. The 
poet shook her hand, asked her name, and 
kindly led her into the house. He showed her 
the '' old clock on the stairs," the chair made 
from the village blacksmith's chestnut tree, 
presented to him by the Cambridge children, 
and the beautiful pictures and souvenirs col- 
lected at home and abroad. This incident 
9* 



194 

shows the simplicity of the poet's nature and 
his love for children. 

Besides poetry, Mr. Longfellow produced a 
number of excellent prose works. 

John Greenleaf Whittier (i 807-1 892) was 
born at Haverhill, Massachusetts. His parents 
were Quakers in humble circumstances. As 
John grew up he worked on the farm and at 
shoemaking, going to school in winter. At 
seventeen he began to write poetry and hid it 
in the garret, but one day his sister found a 
scrap of it and sent it to the Newburyport 
Free Press. The editor, William Lloyd Garri- 
son, found it lying at the door of his office, and 
noticed the signature "W/' He had a good 
mind to tear it up without reading it, but he 
did read it, and liked it, and printed it. In the 
same number of the paper the editor said, '' If 
' W at Haverhill will continue to favor us with 
pieces as beautiful as the one we print to-day, 
we shall esteem it a favor." Mr. Garrison found 
out that the writer was a Quaker lad of Haver- 
hill, so he drove over there to hunt him up. On 
reaching the house, Mr. Garrison said to John's 
father, '' I want to see you about your son." 
"What has the boy been doing?" said the 
father. John was in the fields helping his 
uncle Moses repair a stone wall. His sister ran 
out with a copy of the paper and threw it over 
the wall to him, telling him that he must come 




NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 



195 

to the house and see the editor. When John 
saw his poem in print, he was dazed, and stared 
at the lines till his uncle told him to continue 
his work. John was barefooted, and clothed 
only in a shirt, pantaloons, and a straw hat. 
He slipped into the back door and put on his 
coat and shoes before going into the room to 
see the visitor. Mr. Garrison encouraged him 
to continue writing, and to try to get a better 
education. John worked six months at sewing 
slippers to get money for a few months instruct- 
ion at Haverhill Academy. The next winter 
he taught school to pay for another six months 
at the Academy. His Voices of Freedom ap- 
peared in 1 84 1, but before this he had written 
considerable prose. He was a strong opponent 
of slavery, and wrote earnestly against it. He 
was engaged in newspaper work in Boston, 
Hartford, Philadelphia, and Washington, but 
in 1840 he settled at Amesbury, Mass., and 
lived there till his death. 

Some of Whittier's most popular poems are. 
Snow Bound, The Tent on the Beach, Among the 
Hills, Maud Muller, Barbara FrietcJiie, and The 
Barefoot Boy. Whittier's poems are simple, 
fresh, and graceful, and he ranks among the 
first poets of our day. 

Richard Henry Stoddard, the poet, was born 
at Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1825. He was 
the son of a sea captain who was lost at sea. 



With his mother he went to New York, where 
he worked several years in^ an iron foundry. 
He had a taste for books, and read the best 
authors, and often wrote verses for his own 
pleasure. He became acquainted with Bayard 
Taylor and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the lat- 
ter got him a place in the custom house, where 
he remained from 1857 to 1870. Among his 
poems are Putnam the Brave ^ Abraham Lincoln, 
and a volume called the Book of the East, which 
is his best work. 

Joaquin Miller was born in Indiana in 1841. 
When he was thirteen years of age his parents 
emigrated to Oregon, being five months on 
the way. After working three years on the 
farm, Joaquin went to California to search for 
gold. While working as a miner, he began to 
write verses. Having poor luck as a miner, he 
lived a wild life for several years among the 
Indians, and then returned to Oregon, lamed by 
gunshot and arrow wounds. After some years 
he went to England, and published a volume of 
poems, which made him famous in both hemi- 
spheres. Some of his works are Songs of the 
Sierras, Songs of the Sunlands, The Ship in the 
Desert, in poetry, besides several prose works. 

Paul H. Hayne, called the poet laureate of 
the South, was born in Charleston, S. C, in 
1830. His Ode to Sleep was praised by Bryant 
and Longfellow. When the Civil War broke 



197 

out he joined the Confederate army. After the 
war he continued to write. His Confederates in 
the Field won a prize as the best poem on the 
war. 

Edmund C. Stedman was born in Hartford, 
where his father was a merchant, in 1833. At 
Yale college he distinguished himself in Greek 
and English composition and received a first 
prize for a poem, Westminster Abbey, published 
in the Yale Literary Magazine. On leaving 
college he edited a paper first at Winsted and 
then at Norwich, but he afterwards went to 
New York and contributed to various peri- 
odicals. His poems, The Diamond Wedding, 
Hozv Old John Brown took Harper s Ferry, and 
other lyrics appeared in 1859, ^^^ ^^ next 
year he published a volume of poems, '' Lyric 
and Idyllic." From 1861 to 1863 he was with 
the Army of the Potomac as war correspondent 
of the New York World. Returning to New 
York he gave up journalism that he might have 
more time for literary work. He bought a seat 
in the stock exchange and became a broker. 
Besides writing much poetry himself, he has 
produced a series of sketches of the poetry of 
Great Britain in the Victorian Age and similar 
sketches of American poetry. Mr. Stedman 
has delivered several poems on public oc- 
casions. The most important of these was 
Gettysburg, read at the annual meeting of the 



198 

Army of the Potomac at Cleveland in 1871. 
His poetry is fresh and buoyant. 

Lucy Larcom, a native of Beverly, Massa- 
chusetts, began to write verses at seven years 
of age. At thirteen she went to work in a mill 
at Lowell, but Whittier encouraged her to go 
on writing. After a time she took up teach- 
ing, but failing health compelled her to stop. 
She wrote many patriotic poems during the 
Civil War. She died in 1893. 

Other writers of poetry, who should be men- 
tioned, are John James Piatt and his wife ; H. 
H. Brownell, who wrote spirited naval poems; 
Thomas Buchanan Read, who wrote Sheridaiis 
Ride ; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, author of the 
Battle Hymn of the Republic ; the sisters Alice 
and Phoebe Carey; Wallace Bruce, a lecturer 
and poet, author of TJie Land of Btcrns, Yosem- 
ite^ and The Hudson. 

J. Historians. 

During the nineteenth century America has 
produced several notable historians besides a 
great many who have done useful work. 

George Bancroft (1800- 1 891) was born in 
Massachusetts. After graduating from Har- 
vard at seventeen, he went to Germany where 
he spent several years in study and travel. 

The first volume of his History of the United 
States appeared in 1834; the twelfth and last 
volume aj)peared in 1882. The work begins 




LOUISA MAY ALCOTT. 



199 

with Columbus, and ends in 1789. The style is 
brilliant and the author's opinions are fearlessly 
expressed. Mr. Bancroft was appointed secre- 
tary of the navy and afterwards minister to 
England, by President Polk. 

William Hickling Prescott (1796- 1859) ^^^ 
SL native of Salem, Massachusetts, and grand- 
son of Colonel William Prescott who fought 
at Bunker Hill. In 1812, while a student at 
Harvard, one of his eyes was blinded by a 
piece of bread thrown, in fun, by a fellow 
student. The other eye became so much 
affected that little sight remained. In spite of 
this Prescott resolved to make literature his 
profession. Fortunately he had ample means, 
and he pursued his studies with the help of a 
reader and amanuensis. In 1837 his History 
of Ferdinand and Isabella was published after 
eleven years of labor. It was immediately 
successful and was translated into five European 
languages. He then spent six years writing 
the History of the Conquest of Mexico, and four 
more on the Conquest of Peru. He also wrote 
three volumes of the History of Philip II, but 
left it unfinished. All Prescott's works are 
carefully and charmingly written. 

John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877) was a 
native of Dorchester, Massachusetts. After 
graduating at Harvard he spent several years 
studying and traveling in Europe. Returning 



200 

to America, he studied law, but gave it up and 
turned to literature. After five years labor he 
published The Rise of the Dutch Republie. 

He afterwards published, The History of the 
Netherlands, and the Life of John of Barneveld. 
Motley stands^ next to Prescott for the beauty 
and value of his historical work. He Avas for 
six years United States minister at the court of 
Vienna, and for one year minister to England. 

Francis Parkman ranks with Prescott and 
Motley as an elegant writer of history. He 
was born in Boston in 1823, and graduated 
at Harvard in 1844. After visiting Europe 
he made a journey across the prairies and 
among the Rocky Mountains, and published 
an account of his exploration in The Oregon 
Trail. 

He resolved to write the history of the 
attempts made by the French and Spanish to 
establish colonies in North America. For this 
purpose he studied for many years and pub- 
lished Pioneers of France in the New World, The 
Jesuits in North America, The Great West, Mont- 
calm and Wolfe, A Half Century of Conflict. 

Mr. Parkman died in 1893. 

John Fisk, a native of Hartford, was born in 
1842, and graduated at Harvard. He studied 
law, but has given most of his time to history 
and philosophy. He is a clear thinker and 
writer. 



201 

Among his books are The Unseen World and 
TJie Destiny of Man. He is also a popular 
lecturer on history, and is writing a History of 
the American People. 

Eugene Field ( 1 8 50- 1 895 ) was born in St. Louis, 
Mo. P'or ten years he was connected with vari- 
ous newspapers and in 1883 he became a mem- 
ber of the staff of the Chicago Daily News. A 
great deal of his work was necessarily hurried 
and has no enduring merit, but some of his 
lyrics are likely to live. He wall be chiefly 
remembered as a poet of childhood. Among 
his publications are A Little Book of Western 
Verse, A Little Book of Profitable Tales, and With 
Trumpet and Drum. 

James Whitcomb Riley, a popular poet, was 
born at Greenfield, Indiana, in 1852. He left 
school at an early age, and went from place to 
place, obtaining a living by writing signs. He 
sometimes drew more attention to his work by 
pretending to be blind. He also joined a 
theatrical troupe and became an i'mproviser of 
songs. About the year 1875 he began to write 
verses for the papers in the western dialect, and 
his work soon found a welcome place in the 
magazines. Among his collected works are The 
Old Szvimmin Hole, Livin More Poems, After- 
whiles, and Character Sketches. 



202 

Charles Carleton Coffin has written many 
books of a patriotic nature for young folks, 
and G. A. Henty has produced many stirring 
and instructive historical novels. 

John B. McMaster is writing a History of the 
American People. 

Other American historians, who did excel- 
lent work, are Richard Hildreth (i 807-1 865), 
who devoted a considerable part of his life to 
writing a History of the United States ; John 
Palfrey, who wrote a very complete History of 
Nezv England ; Jared Sparks, who wrote many 
biographies, including those of Washington 
and Franklin ; Samuel G. Goodrich, who made 
history attractive to the young ; the brothers, 
Jacob and John S. C. Abbott, from whose works 
President Lincoln said he had obtained all his 
knowledge of history ; and Benson J. Lossing, 
whose Field Book of the Revolution and other 
similar works have great value. 




WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A mericaii Novelists. 

The first American novelist was Charles 
Brockden Brown (i 77 i-i 8 lo), a native of Phila- 
delphia. His first book, called Wieland, ap- 
peared in 1 798. Brown was a good writer, and 
was probably the first American to make a 
living by writing books. 

James Fenimore Cooper. 

The second American novelist, in the order 
of time, was James Fenimore Cooper (1789- 
185 1). He was born in Burlington, New Jersey, 
but spent his boyhood at Cooperstown, New 
York, a village founded by his father. He 
studied three years at Yale, then entered the 
navy, serving for six years. Cooper's first 
novel, Precaution, appeared in 1821, and was 
only a partial success, but TJie Spy, Avhich 
followed, was much admired and was repub- 
lished in Europe. It was the first of the famous 
Leather Stocking Tales, describing wild life in 
the West. One of the best of these is The Last 
of the Mohicans. Many of Cooper's novels wer6 
sea-tales, based upon his experiences in the 
navy. The best of these are The Pilot, and Th^ 

(203) 



204 

Red Rover. He was a very prolific writer, pro- 
ducing thirty-four novels. It was probably 
from reading Cooper's works that so many 
English people came to think that America 
was full of Indians and wild buffaloes. 

James K. Paulding (1778- 1860) was a writer 
of poems, novels, and humorous sketches. He 
was a friend of Irving and was associated with 
him in writing Salmagundi. 

Joseph Rodman Drake died in 1820 at the 
early age of twenty-five, but he wrote a work 
of fancy, called The Ctdprit Fay, and a popular 
poem, The American Flag. It is believed that, 
if he had lived, he would have made a great 
name in literature. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1812- 1896) was born 
in Litchfield, Conn. At fifteen years of age she 
was teaching with an elder sister in a girl's 
school at Hartford. She began to write stories 
for children, but in 1852 her great novel. Uncle 
Tom's Cabin, was published. It was written 
to expose the evils of slavery, and it had an 
immense sale in this country and in Europe. 
Next to Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter it is the 
most popular book by an American author. 
It is said to have been translated forty times 
into other languages. Mrs. Stowe wrote nu- 
merous other books, of which the best are 
J^lie Minister s Wooing, The Pearl of Orrs Island^ 
and Oldtown Folks. 



205 

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804- 1864) stands at 
the head of American writers of fiction. He 
was born in Salem, Mass. As a boy he was 
feeble in body and very shy. Graduating at 
Bowdoin College at twenty-one, he returned to 
Salem and lived there in seclusion, writing all 
day and walking about the town at night. In 
1843 hs went to live in an old house near the 
bridge at Concord, Mass., and there wrote his 
first successful book, Mosses from an Old Manse. 
Returning to Salem he wrote The Scarlet Letter, 
a powerful romance of colonial- times. The 
House of the Seveji Gables was written while 
living at Lenox. During the four years from 
1853 to 1857 he was American consul at Liver- 
pool, then spent three years traveling in Eng- 
land and France and Italy. In Our Old Home 
he describes life and scenes in England. TJie 
Marble Faun is an Italian romance, and is con- 
sidered his best work. Hawthorne also wrote 
several books for young folks. 

Hawthorne's style is perfect, his insight into 
the human mind is marvelous, and his imagi- 
nation is fascinating and weird. 

Susan Warner (18 19-1885) lived at High- 
land Falls, New York. Her novel, Qucechey, 
had a large sale, and The Wide, Wide World was 
one of the most popular novels ever written. 
It is a literary work of art. 

Her sister Anna also wrote a number of 
books. 



206 

Theodore Winthrop, a graduate of Yale in 
1848, gave promise of winning higli fame as 
a writer. Cecil Dreeme, John Brent, and Love on 
Skates showed fine literary skill. He enlisted 
in the 7th New York regiment at the outbreak 
of the Civil War. While rallying his men in 
the attack on Big Bethel he sprang upon a 
log and received a bullet in his heart. He was 
a nephew of President Woolsey of Yale College. 

Marion Crawford, the son of an eminent 
American sculptor, was born in Italy in 1854, 
and has lived mostly abroad. His works of 
fiction have given him a high place in litera- 
ture. Some of the best known are Mr, Isaacs, 
A Roman Singer, and Zoroaster. 

Miss Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Crad- 
dock) is a native of Nashville, Tenn. For a 
number of years, from childhood up, she was 
unable to use her feet on account of paralysis, 
but can now get about very well. She could 
not play romping games like other children, 
but she early formed a habit of reading. For 
many years the family spent the summer at 
the mountains, and after the war they went to 
live at Murfreesboro. 

Miss Murfree was a close observer of moun- 
tain life and scenery, and began to sketch them 
in words. After writing The Dancin Party she 
read it aloud to the family and their praise led 
her to offer it to the Atlantic Monthly, signed 




CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 



207 

with an assumed name. Her handwriting 
was coarse and did not look at all like that of a 
woman. Mr. Aldrich afterwards told her that 
when he saw it, he thought it must have been 
written with a dip brush, such as is used for 
dipping snuff. The piece was accepted, and, 
not long after this, Mr. Aldrich wrote " Mr. 
Murfree, Esq.," asking for more. One morn- 
ing in .1875, while Mr. Aldrich was in his office 
he was told that a lady wished to see him. On 
going to see who it was, she told him she was 
Egbert Craddock. He knew that writer was 
coming, but had expected to see a tall Tennes- 
sean man. He was amazed to see a slender 
woman, and so also were Dr. Holmes and Mr. 
Howells, when they met her at Mr. Aldrich's 
house in the evening. 

Miss Murfree has written a number of good 
stories for the YoutJis Companion, besides sev- 
eral volumes of unusual interest. The manu- 
script of Borrowing a Hammer was lost in the 
mail and never found. Other works are, Where 
the Battle Was Fought, describing the scene of 
the Battle of Murfreesboro, and The Prophet of 
Great Smoky Moiintai?is. Her works are humor- 
ous and descriptive of the mountain folk of 
Tennessee. 

Lew Wallace was a soldier in the war with 
Mexico and a general in the Civil War. From 
1 88 1 to 1885 he was United States minister to 



2o8 

Turkey. He is a lawyer by profession and 
lives in Indiana. He has written several books 
which have made him famous at home and 
abroad. TJic Fair God is a story of the early 
conquest cf Mexico. Ben Hur, a tale of the 
Christ, has had an immense sale. The Prince 
of India is a remarkable book. Its chief char- 
acter is the " Wandering Jew," and the scene 
of action is Constantinople. 

Julian Hawthorne, the son of Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, is regarded by many as the first 
living American writer of fiction. He was born 
in Boston in 1846, graduated at Harvard, and 
was for a time a civil engineer, but turned to 
literature. Some of his novels are, Garth, The 
Laughing Mill, Fortune'' s Fool, Dust and Noble 
Blood. 

Edward Eggleston, born in Indiana in 1837, 
has done some good literary work. Delicate 
health prevented him from entering college, 
and his education was mostly self-acquired. 
He was for a time a Methodist preacher, then 
became editor of The Little Corporal, a chil- 
dren's paper. Then he began to write novels 
of early life in Indiana. Some of his works 
are, Mr, Blake's Walking Stick, The Hoosier 
Schoolmaster, and The Circuit Rider. 

Edward Payson Roe (1838-1888) studied the- 
ology after leaving Williams College, and was 
a volunteer chaplain in the Civil War. 



209 

He visited Chicago after the great fire, and 
published Barriers Burned Away, which was a 
great success. After settling down at Corn- 
wall-on-the-Hudson, he gave his time to litera- 
ture and the cultivation of small fruits. He 
was a very prolific writer and the most popular 
American novelist. More than a million copies 
of his books have been sold in this country, and 
they have had a large sale in England. 
Among his works are, Opening a Chestnut Burr, 
From Jest to Earnest, Near to Nature's Heart, A 
Day of Fate, TJie Earth Trembled, Driven Back 
to Eden. 

George W. Cable was born in New Orleans 
in 1844. Owing to the death of his father, he 
had to leave school and earn his own living. 
In 1863 he joined the Confederate army and 
was a daring soldier. At the close of the war 
he was an errand boy for awhile, then studied 
civil engineering, but began writing critical 
and humorous sketches under the name of 
" Drop Shot." His sketches of Creole life 
opened up a new field of fiction. Old Creole 
Days, The Grandissimes, and Dr. Sevier made 
him very popular. He is also a fine lecturer. 
His present residence is at Northampton, Mass. 

Amelia E. Barr, a native of Yorkshire, Eng- 
land, came to the United States in 1854. After 
losing her husband and three sons of yellow 

fever in Texas, she came with her daughters 
10 



210 

to New York city. She has written mucli 
for the magazines, also several novels, among 
which are Jan Vedders Wife and A Bow of 
Orange Ribbon, 

Few writers have written so many excel- 
lent books for girls as Louisa May Alcott, 
who was born in Germantown, Pa., in 1832. 
Her father was Bronson Alcott, a native of 
Connecticut. When a boy he took a trunk 
full of goods to the South to sell. He was a 
good talker and was welcomed everywhere. 
When he returned, his employer found that he 
had not sold five dollars worth of goods. He 
afterwards established a school for young 
children, and was very successful. He taught 
by means of conversation and used no books. 
He was also a lecturer and author. When 
Louisa was two years old her parents moved to 
Boston, and afterwards to Concord. Thoreau 
and her father were her teachers. At sixteen 
she began to write for publication, but had 
little success for fifteen years. In 1862 she 
went to Washington and remained there many 
months as a volunteer nurse. Her letters 
home were published and were eagerly read. 
In 1867 Miss Alcott published Little Wome7i, 
which made her famous, and 87,000 copies were 
sold in three years. Little Men, An Old Fash- 
ioned Girl, Annt Jo's Scrap Bag, Eight Cousins, 
Rose in Bloom, and other books added to her 



#.»-, 




SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS. 



211 

fame. The characters are drawn from New 
England life. 

1 8. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, a daughter of 
Professor Austin Phelps of Andover, is the 
author of many remarkably good short stories. 
She began to write for the press at thirteen 
years of age. The Gates Ajar, a book on heaven, 
made a great sensation in 1868, and reached a 
twentieth edition in a single year. Men, Women, 
a7id Ghosts is a collection of short stories. 
Other works are An Old Maid's Paradise and 
Jack the Fisherman. 

Thomas Baily Aldrich was born in Ports- 
mouth, N. H., in 1836. His boyhood was 
passed in his native town, in New Orleans, and 
in New York. Before he was twenty he be- 
came a writer for several New York papers. 
His ballad of Baby Bell, on the death of a child, 
has been popular for many years. His poetry 
is tender, graceful, and in sympathy with 
nature. In The Story of a Bad Boy Mr. Aldrich 
gives his own youthful experiences in Ports- 
mouth, calling himself Tom Bailey, and the 
town Rivermouth. Some of his other works 
are, Prudence Palfrey, The Queen of Sheba, and 
The Stillwater Tragedy. 

William Dean Howells was born in Ohio 
in 1837. His ancestors were Welsh Quakers. 
His father was a printer and newspaper pub' 



212 

lisher. When quite young William began to 
compose verses and put them in type in his 
father's office. After awhile his father lost his 
property and William gave what he earned as 
a printer to help support the family. He be- 
came editor of a newspaper at Columbus and 
a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly. When 
Lincoln was nominated in i860, Howells wrote 
his life and the book had a large sale. With 
the money thus earned he visited Montreal and 
Boston, and on this trip he became acquainted 
with Lowell and Holmes. President Lincoln 
appointed him consul to Venice, where he re- 
mained four years studying Italian and observ- 
ing the people. After his return he published 
Venetian Life and Italian Journeys, which 
charmed all readers by their descriptions, 
which are as perfect as a photograph. In 1871 
he became editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and 
held that position till 1881. His first story, 
Their Wedding Journey, was very successful. 
Since that time he has written many stories, 
among which The Rise of Silas Laphani is pro- 
bably the best. In 1886 he was made one of 
the editors of Harper s Magazine. 

Mr. Howells is an easy and elegant writer. 
He believes that a new period has come in 
fiction-writing. He considers the novels of 
such writers as Scott and Dickens and Thack- 
eray unreal and artificial. He is a realist, not 
an idealist, and regards Count Tolstoi of Russia 



213 

as the first of all novelists. Howells has 
written many plays for private theatricals. 
His home is in Boston. 

Constance Fenimore Woolson, a niece of 
Fenimore Cooper, was born in New Hampshire 
in 1 848. The last fifteen years of her life were 
spent in Italy, and she died at Venice in Janu- 
ary, 1894. Her charming stories treat of com- 
mon people. For the Major, describes how a 
woman concealed her age. East Angels is her 
best story„ 

Henry James has written a number of novels 
showing the contrast between American and 
European life and manners. 

Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, a native of 
England, who came to this country when a 
young woman, has produced several popular 
stories. That Lass o' Lozvries treats of life in 
the mines of Lancashire. Little Lord Fauntle- 
roy is a most charming story of a real little boy. 

William M. Baker wrote, among other things, 
The New Timothy and His Majesty Myself. 

W. H. Bishop's Detniold and The House of a 
Merchant Prince are good stories of European 
life. In ferry and Clarinda he has written a 
clever story of a deaf boy. 

Margaret Deland, besides/^/'// Ward, Preacher, 
has written a simple and beautiful Story of a 
Child. 



214 

Mary Eleanor Wilkins was born in Randolph, 
Mass., and was educated at Mt. Holyoke Semi- 
nary. Her first literary work consisted of mag- 
azine stories which were faithful delineations of 
New England life. Some of her stories dealing 
with this subject are The Adventures of Ann, A 
Neiv England Nnn, and Young Lucretia. Her 
novel Pembroke has met with great favor in 
England as well as in the United States. It is 
a dramatic presentation of the pride and obsti- 
nacy in the Puritan character. In 1895 Miss 
Wilkins won a prize of $3,000 by writing The 
Long Arm, a detective story. 

Henry Van Dyke is known as a writer on Ten- 
nyson. His Little Rivers is a series of vacation 
experiences while fishing in the streams of the 
Adirondacks, Canada, Scotland, Italy, and 
Switzerland. In the following example of Mr. 
Van Dyke's graceful style Greygoivn is Mrs. Van 
Dyke, while Ferdinand is the writer himself. 
They are fishing for the gamy little salmon of 
the St. John River : 

*' The grasshopper was attached to the hook, 
and casting the line well out across the pool, 
Ferdinand put the rod into Greygown's hands. 
vShe stood poised upon a pinnacle of rock, like 
Patience on a Monument, waiting for a bite. 
It came. There was a slow gentle pull at the 
Ime answered by a quick jerk of the rod, and a 



1 




RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 



215 

noble fish flashed into the air. Four pounds 
and a half at least ! He leaped again and again, 
shaking the drops from his silvery sides. He 
rushed up the rapids as if he had determined to 
return to the lake, and down again as if he had 
changed his plans and determined to go to the 
Saguenay. He sulked in the deep water and 
rubbed his nose against the rocks. He did his 
best to treat that grasshopper as the whale 
served Jonah. But Greygown, through all her 
little screams and shouts of excitement, was 
steady and sage. She never gave the fish an 
inch of slack line ; and at last he lay glittering 
on the rocks, with the black St. Andrew's 
crosses clearly marked on his plump sides, and 
the iridescent spots gleaming on his sma:ll, 
shapely head." 

Sarah Orne Jewett, born in Maine in 1849, 
has written DccpJiaven, A Country Doctor, A 
White Heron, and The Story of the Normans. 

Thomas Nelson Page has written stories of 
the South, describing scenes in Virginia after 
the war. Among these are Marse Chan, The 
Little Confederates, Newfound River, and Elsket. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Humorous American Writers. 

The nineteentli century has produced several 
eminent humorists whose reputation is not con- 
fined to America, besides many others whose 
bright sayings flash like electric sparks. One 
of the earlier American humorists was George 
H. Derby, who called himself ''John Phoenix." 
He was born in Massachusetts in 1823, and 
graduated at West Point in 1 846. His wit was 
genuine and original. 

Charles F. Brown, as '' Artemas Ward," was 
considered the leading humorist of his time. 
He was born at Waterford, Maine, in 1834, and 
died in England in 1 867. His humor was some- 
times coarse, but as he advanced in life, it be- 
came mellow and delicious. He was a popu- 
lar lecturer, and he was for some time a writer 
for Punch, the leading humorous paper in Eng- 
land. 

Henry W. Shaw, "Josh Billings," was born 
in Massachusetts in 18 18. He wrote many 
proverbs full of wit and wisdom. Like the 
writings of Artemus Ward, they are in pho- 
netic spelling. 

(216) 



217 

David R. Locke, " Petroleum V. Nasby," was 
born in New York State in 1833. He began 
the letters which made him famous in 1 860, and 
he exerted considerable influence over the pub- 
lic mind during the Civil War. 

John G. Saxe was born in Vermont in 18 16, 
and graduated at Middlebury College in 1839. 
He was first a lawyer, then a newspaper editor, 
and finally became a lecturer and author. He 
is the most famous American humorous poet. 

Charles Dudley Warner is a leading writer, 
and a humorist of a delicate type. He was 
born in Plainfield, Massachusetts, in 1829, and 
graduated at Hamilton College in 1851. After 
graduation he engaged in railroad surveying 
at the West for a time. Then he studied law 
and practised it a while, but came to Hartford 
at the invitation of his friend, J. R. Hawley, to 
help him edit the Hartford Press, and later the 
Courant. Mr. Warner's editorials were of a lit- 
erary character. About the year 1 869 he pub- 
lished a series of sketches in the Courant, called 
My Summer in a Garden. Many persons were 
charmed by them and asked that they might 
be made into a book. Since then Mr. Warner 
has written many books, some of which are 
Back Log Studies, My Winter on the Nile, In the 
Levant, Baddeek, an account of a trip to the 

provinces of British America, Mnnnnies and 
10* 



2l8 

Moslems, Saunteriiigs, an account of travel in 
Europe, and Beiitg a Boy. 

Mr. Warner is very industrious, producing 
literary work in the forenoon, and being on 
duty as editor-in-cliief of the Coiirant in the 
afternoon. He is also one of the editors of 
Harper s Magazine. He is fond of out-door life 
and often goes to the Adirondacks. 

Francis Bret Harte was born in Albany in 
1837, ^^^ went to California at the age of 
seventeen. He taught school, worked in the 
mines, and became an editor. He was the 
founder and first editor of the Overland Monthly, 
in which he published poems and tales that 
made him famous. His stories of California 
life are full of humor and pathos. Some of his 
Western sketches are The Story of Dozvs Flat, 
The Heathen Chinee, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, 
and The Luck of Roaring Camp. He has also 
written a long novel, Gabriel Conroy, and a 
number of Eastern sketches. 

Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) stands 
at the head of American humorists. He was 
born in Missouri in 1835 and had but little 
schooling. At the age of thirteen he was 
apprenticed to a printer and Avorked at his 
trade in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, 
and New York. At eighteen he learned to be 
a pilot on the Mississippi River. In 1861 he 




JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 



219 

went to Nevada, did some mining and edited 
a paper. After visiting California and the 
Sandwich Islands, he returned and delivered 
humorous lectures in California and Nevada. 
He published The Jumping Frog and other 
sketches in 1867. He went with a party of 
tourists to the Holy Land, and wrote The Inno- 
cents Abroad, giving an amusing account of the 
journey. This book suited the popular taste, 
and 125,000 copies were sold in three years. 
Roughing It consists of sketches of California, 
Utah, and Nevada. The Gilded Age was the 
work of Mr. Clemens , and C. D. Warner to- 
gether. A Tramp Abroad is an account of a 
walking trip in Europe. Though full of the 
author^s own peculiar humor, it is an excellent 
book of travel. The' Prince and Panper contains 
a wholesome lesson for those who pride them- 
selves on high birth. Besides these he has 
produced a number of books, and a great many 
brilliant and strikingly original sketches, .one 
of the best of the last being A Million Pound 
Bank Note. 

Mr. Clemens made his home in Hartford in 
1 87 1. His working room is on the top floor of 
the house which is close by the homes of Mrs. 
Stowe and C. D. Warner. He is a hard worker 
and an expert bicycle rider. His hospitality 
is generous and he has entertained at his Hart- 
ford home Mr. Howells, G. W. Cable, T. B. 



220 

Aldrich, Henry Irving, Miss Edwards, and 
other distinguished literary persons. 

Joel Chandler Harris, '' Uncle Remus," was 
born in Georgia in 1848, and now lives near 
Atlanta. He had little schooling, but learned 
to read and was fond of books. He had the 
good fortune to get acquainted with a Mr. 
Turner, and was afterwards thrilled to find 
that the latter was a real editor. He got a 
place in his paper office and was allowed ac- 
cess to Mr. Turner's library of 3,000 volumes. 
He used to hunt rabbits on the plantation, and 
there met Uncle Remus, an old colored man, 
who told him many of the stories he has since 
written, that have made him famous. Finally 
he became an editor, writing the articles, set- 
ting the type, printing the paper on a hand- 
press, wrapping and addressing the papers 
himself. The U'7tc/e Remus Stories were imme- 
diately popular at the North and in England. 

Frank R. Stockton's fanciful and humorous 
stories have won for him a wide popularity. 



CHAPTER XV. 

General Literature, including Stories, Sketches of 
Life and Travel, Essays, Poeins, etc. 

Washington Lrving. 

One of the first American writers to win a 
fame extending beyond his own country was 
Washington Irving (i 783-1 859), a native of 
New York city. His father was Scotch and 
his mother was English. At nineteen Irving 
began literary work by writing for a news- 
paper, but in 1804 he was obliged to go abroad 
for his health. After seeing France and Italy, 
he lived for a time in London. On returning 
to New York in 1806, he established a little 
magazine called Salmagundi. This was pub- 
lished every fortnight, and showed up, in a 
pleasant way, the follies and fashions of the 
time. Three years later Irving published his 
Knickerbocker s History of New York, pretending 
that the manuscript had been found in a hotel. 
Some dull persons believed it, and some of the 
descendants of early Dutch settlers in New 
York were displeased because it poked a little 
fun at their ancestors ; but most persons en- 
joyed its pleasant humor. During a second 

(221) 



222 

visit to England, Irving gained the friendship 
of Sir Walter Scott, and there he published his 
most popular work, the Sketch Book, containing 
the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, 
and other tales. This book brought him con- 
siderable money and fame. Later, while in 
Paris, he produced Bracebridge Hall, containing 
pleasing sketches of English country life. A 
London publisher gave him a thousand pounds 
for it, and for another work, Tales of a Traveler, 
the same publisher gave him fifteen hundred 
pounds. Irving also wrote the Life and Voy- 
ages of Columbus. His last work was the Life 
of Washington, in five volumes, published only 
a few months before the author's death. 
Irving's style was easy, clear, and flowing, and 
his writings were full of tenderness and humor. 
" Sunnyside," his former home at Tarry- 
town on the Hudson, is still visited by many 
American and English admirers. 

Richard H. Dana, Jr., born in 1815, was the 
son of R. H. Dana, the poet. His eyesight 
was so much injured by an attack of measles, 
that he had to give up study. He went to sea 
on a voyage to the Pacific, and in 1840 he pub- 
lished Two Years Before the Mast. This book 
has been almost as popular with adults as 
Robinson Crusoe is with children. The Eng- 
lish Government had it printed for use in the 
navy. Mr. Dana got only $250 for the work. 







OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 



223 

Henry D. Thoreau (i 8 17-1862) was the son 
of a -maker of lead pencils at Concord. The 
son worked at his father's business for a while, 
but when he had learned how to make a per- 
fect pencil, he would make no more. Thoreau 
cared nothing for society, and had as little as 
possible to do with his fellowmen. He re- 
mained single, never voted, and never paid a 
tax. He built himself a shanty on the shore 
of Walden Pond, near Concord, and lived there 
several years, studying Nature. He cared noth- 
ing for fame or money. He possessed a culti- 
vated taste in literature and was an excellent 
writer. His chief works are : Walden, or Life 
in the Woods, A Yankee in Canada, and Maine 
Woods. Hawthorne and Emerson felt a warm 
affection for Thoreau. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (i 803-1 882) was a 
poet, and also the most distinguished Ameri- 
can essayist. He was born in Boston, gradu- 
ated at Harvard in 1825, and was for several 
years a preacher. He then gave up preaching 
and became a lecturer and author. He made 
his home for many years at Concord and died 
there. He is often called the Sage of Concord. 
The writings of Emerson have had a great in- 
fluence upon the mind and thought of this age. 
Some of his best known works are, Nature, Rep- 
resentative Men, and English Traits. 



224 

George William Curtis (i 824-1 892) was a na- 
tive of Providence, R. I. At fifteen years of 
age he entered the counting-room of a mer- 
chant in New York, but remained there only a 
year. After that he worked on a farm, but 
spent as much time as possible in study. He 
was one of the original editors of Putnam s 
Magazine, and wrote for it a number of sketches 
and essays. In 1853 Mr. Curtis became a public 
lecturer and was very successful. He was for 
many years the editor of Harper s Weekly, and 
wrote the delightful Easy Chair notes for 
Harper s Monthly. Several volumes of his es- 
says have been published, and of these the 
-collection with the title Price and I is probably 
the best. 

Josiah Gilbert Holland was born in Belcher- 
town, Mass., in 18 19. He studied medicine, but 
practised only a few years. Then he took up 
literature and became one of the editors of the 
Springfield Republican, in which several of his 
popular works first appeared. In 1870 he be- 
came editor of Scribners Monthly in New York. 
Some of his best works are. The Bay Path, a 
story of the first settlement of the Connecticut 
Valley ; Timothy Titcomb's Letters to the Young, 
full of excellent advice to young people ; Miss 
Gilbert's Career, showing the good and the bad 
in a Yankee village. Miss Gilbert, daugnter of 
the village doctor, is the teacher of an infant 



225 

school. On a certain day the villagers assem- 
ble in the church to witness the remarkable 
progress made by children under five years of 
age. Dr. Gilbert makes an address, in which 
he shows that it is a great waste of time for 
little boys to play at ball and go fishing, or 
for little girls to play with dolls. Miss Gil- 
bert then calls out her little scholars who 
have been taught to sing songs, repeat poetry 
in concert, and answer questions in geogra- 
phy, history, and arithmetic. They give the 
names of all the Presidents and act a little 
drama of Moses in the Bulrushes. Everybody 
is astonished and delighted, but more is yet 
to come. The sun and all his planets with 
their satellites are represented by the children 
carrying each a small ball in the hand, and 
walking in proper order around the sun. The 
doctor's eyes beam proudly, the spectators vig- 
orously applaud, and the exhibition by the 
children comes to a close. The Rev. Jonas 
Sliter rises to ''make a few remarks." He de- 
clares that these children have begun the bat- 
tle of life early. Their teacher has led them 
to a victory prouder than any won by Caesar 
or Napoleon. Miss Gilbert is an American 
Joan of Arc, whose career of glory far sur- 
passes that of the French heroine. Then, 
turning to the children, he says in gentle 
tones, " Little children, can you tell me who 



226 

Caesar, Napoleon, and Joan of Arc were?" 
" Caesar is the name of my dog," says one 
little fellow. '' Napoleon is the name of my 
dog," says another. After a pause, a little 
girl says, '' Joan of Arc was the name of the 
dog that Noah saved from the flood." No 
wonder there was a roar of laughter. 

Bitter Sweet and Katrina were two very popu- 
lar poems. 

Bayard Taylor {i82^-i8'/8). 

James Bayard Taylor was born in Pennsyl- 
vania. At seventeen years of age he became 
an apprentice in a printing office, and began to 
write verses for the newspapers. While still a 
young man he went to Europe and walked 
through various countries. On his return he 
published an account of his journey, called 
Views Afoot. After that he visited California, 
Egypt, India, Japan, and other countries, and 
wrote several books of travel, which were quite 
popular. He also wrote a few novels and a 
great many poems. 

Taylor's literary work is interesting and in- 
structive. 

Donald G. Mitchell was born in Norwich, 
Conn., in 1822, and graduated at Yale College 
in 1 84 1. In 1855 he settled on a farm near 
New Haven, where he has since resided. His 
most popular works are, The Reveries of a 
Bachelor, Dream Life, and My Farm at Edge- 



22J 

wood. Mr. Mitchell is one of our most delight- 
ful writers. 

Edward E. Hale is a clerg-yman of Boston, 
Mass., where he was born in 1822. He is in 
many ways a friend and helper of the common 
people. His book. Ten Times One is Ten, led 
to the forming of clubs for charity all over 
the United States and many also in Europe, 
Asia, and Africa. These are called Harry 
Wadsworth clubs, after the hero of the book, 
and there are now about 50,000 of them. The 
motto of these clubs is " Look up and not 
down ; look forward and not backward ; lend a 
hand." Mr. Hale has helped greatly in bring- 
ing about the success of the Chautauqua liter- 
ary and scientific circle. He has written 
many short stories, the most famous being A 
Man Without a Country and My Double and How 
he undid Me. 

Few men have done so much good in the 
world in various ways. 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson graduated at 
Harvard in 1841 and became a minister, but 
lost his pulpit at Newburyport in 1850 on 
account of his earnest words against slavery. 
After that he was pastor of a church in Wor- 
cester. He was one of a party who planned 
to rescue John Brown after his sentence at 
Harper's Ferry. On the outbreak of the Civil 
War he volunteered, and between 1862 and 



228 

1 864 was at the head of a regiment of colored 
men. 

He has been for many years an advocate for 
woman suffrage, and is a friend of all reform. 

He is a good platform speaker. Army Life 
in a Black Regiment gives his experience in 
South Carolina. His Young Folks History of the 
United States is clear and impartial. Malbone 
is a romance of life at Newport. 

Mrs. Jackson (Helen Hunt) was born at Am- 
herst, Mass., in 1831, the daughter of Prof. 
Fisk. Early in life she showed that love of 
the romantic which was so marked in later 
years. Once, at about the age of ten, she ran 
away from home with another girl, and was 
found walking hand in hand with a tin-peddler. 
She married Capt. Hunt of the U. S. Army, who 
was killed while trying a battery of his own in- 
vention. For a number of years she lived at 
Newport, R. I., but she afterwards married Mr. 
Jackson of Colorado Springs and went there to 
live. In 1 87 1 she published a volume of poems 
called ''Verses." This was followed by Bits of 
Travel, a collection of foreign sketches, Bits of 
Talk about Home Matters, containing excellent 
advice about the home, Bits of Travel at Home, 
an account of a journey across the United 
States, and Bits of Talk for Young Folks. 

One day she was lamenting to a friend that 
no one had done for the Indian what Mrs. 



229 

Stowe liad done for the negro. The friend 
advised her to try it herself. The result was 
Ramona, which she finished in three months. 
This was followed by A Centitry of Dishonor, 
showing- how the Indians have been ill-treated 
by our government. 

Mrs. Hunt possessed an original and power- 
ful mind, and was a great lover of nature. At 
her death she was by her own wish buried on 
the top of Cheyenne Mountain, where she had 
spent so many days. Many visitors climbed 
the mountain to view her resting place, and to 
place a few wild flowers upon her grave, but a 
few years after her death her remains were 
removed to the town of Colorado Springs. 

James Russell Lowell (i 8 1 9-1 891) like Holmes, 
was born at Cambridge in a spacious old house 
called The Elms, where he also died. After 
graduating at Harvard in 1838 he studied law, 
but soon turned to literature. In 1855, he suc- 
ceeded Longfellow as professor of literature at 
Harvard. One of his first popular works was 
A Fable for Critics, describing, in easy verse, 
the leading authors of the day, including him- 
self. The first series of his humorous Biglow 
Papers appeared in 1848. They were written 
in Yankee dialect and strongly opposed the 
extension of slavery. The second series of 
Bigloiv Papers appeared in 1867, and some of 
them were poems of the Civil War. His 



230 

noblest poem is the Commemoration Ode, writ- 
ten in honor of the Harvard men who died 
in the Civil War. 

Lowell did his country good service as min- 
ister to Spain and afterwards to England. In 
England he was much liked for his manliness 
as well as for his literary ability. In Novem- 
ber, 1893, two stained glass windows were dedi- 
cated to his memory in Westminster Abbey. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes (i 809-1 894) was dis- 
tinguished both as a poet and a prose writer. 
He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and 
graduated at Harvard. Like Bryant, Long- 
fellow, and Lowell he intended to be a lawyer, 
but turned to medicine and became a professor 
of anatomy at Harvard. He is best known, 
however, for his literary work. Among his 
best poems are Old Ironsides, celebrating the 
U. S. Frigate Constitution, The Deacon s Master 
Piece, Parson BiirrelVs Legacy, and Homesick in 
Heaven. Some of his prose works are The Au- 
tocrat of the Breakfast Table, The Professor at 
the Breakfast Table, Elsie Venner, and The Guar- 
dian Angel. All of Holmes's literary work is 
full of pleasant humor and genial sunshine. 

Maurice Thompson, born in Indiana in 1844, 
was the child of Southern parents who returned 
to the South. After serving in the Confeder- 
ate army he studied law and settled at Craw- 



231 

fordsville, Indiana. He has written a good 
deal for periodicals, besides a number of books 
of outdoor life. He has done good work, writ- 
ing and lecturing against immoral literature. 

William Winter's Shakespeare's England and 
other works consists of admirable sketches 
of visits to literary shrines in England. 

Rose Terry Cooke, a native of Hartford, 
wrote natural and amusing sketches of rustic 
life in New England. 

Horace E. Scudder is the author of Stories 
and Romances, but he is best known for his 
Bodley Books, a series of volumes of travel for 
young folks. Kate Douglas Wiggin has 
written charming stories treating of child life, 
such as The Story of Patsy, A Summer in a 
Caiion, Tiinothy s Quest, A Cathedral ConrtsJiip, 
and The Story Hour. Justin Winsor has 
written many valuable books and sketches of 
early American history. Richard Grant White 
is a fine scholar and has edited the complete 
works of Shakespeare. Charles Eliot Norton 
has translated Dante s Divine Comedy, and has 
admirably edited the life of Thomas Carlyle. 
James Parton wrote interesting biographies of 
many eminent persons. Mrs. A. D. T. Whit- 
ney, Ellen O. Kirk, and Blanche Willis How- 
ard are popular writers of fiction. John 
Burroughs is the author of many sketches of 



232 

outdoor life. S. Weir Mitchell is a writer of 
several books or poetry and of fiction. 

Edith Thomas, born in 1854, and a native of 
Ohio, has written a good deal for periodicals 
and has published in book form A New Years 
Masque, The Round Year, Lyrics and Sonnets. 

Louise Imogen Guiney born in Boston 1861 ; 
Clinton Scollard born in Clinton, N. Y., i860; 
and Richard Burton, literary editor of the Hart- 
ford Courant, are writers of good poetry. 

The large number of writers in prose and 
verse, who are trying to win fame, cannot be 
named here. Ours is an age of reading. The 
daily or weekly newspaper has come to be a 
necessity in every intelligent family. Numer- 
ous weeklies, of which the Connecticut Courant, 
established in 1764, is the oldest newspaper in 
the United States, give the results of recent 
research in agriculture, science, and the 
mechanic arts, and each religious denomination 
publishes weekly papers, setting forth its own 
special views. '' Giant Monthlies," some of 
them beautifully illustrated, give essays, 
sketches, stories, and useful information on 
all sorts of topics, besides those specially 
devoted to religion, art, or the conduct of 
human life. 



NDEX 



Abbott, Jacob, 201. 

Abbott, John S. C, 192, 201. 

Addison, Joseph, 132. 

Alcott, Louisa May, 210. 

Aldhelm, 9, 22, 33. 

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 211. 

Alfred, 12. 

Angel care, 68. 

Anlaf, 10. 

Arnold, Matthew, 183. 

Arnold, Thomas, 182. 

Athelstan, 10. 

Austin, Alfred, 178. 

Bacon, Francis, 65. 
Baker, William M., 213. 
Bancroft, George, 198. 
Barbour, John, 56. 
Barr, Amelia E., 209. 
Baxter, Richard, 99. 
Beaumont, 87. 
Bede, 14. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 189. 
Beowulf, 5. 

Berkeley, George, 131. 
Besant, Walter, 183. 
Bible translation, 54. 
Bishop, William H., 213. 
Black Death, 29. 
Blackmore, Richard, 117. 
Blackmore, R. D., 183. 
Boswell, James, 148. 
Brithnoth, 10. 
Bronte, Charlotte, 175. 
Brown, Charles Brockden, 203. 
Browne, Thomas, 91. 
Browning, Robert, 172. 
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 172. 

11 



Brooks, Phillips, 189, 
Brown, Charles F., 216. 
Brownell, H. H., 198. 
Bruce, Walter, 198. 
Bryant, William Cullen, 191. 
Bulwer, Edward Lytton, 165. 
Bull and Mastiff, 117. 
Bunyan, John, 106. 
Burke, Edmund, 150. 
Burton, Richard, 232. 
Burton, Robert, 90. 
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 213. 
Burns, Robert, 124. 
Butler, Samuel, no. 
Butler, Nathaniel, in. 
Bushnell, Horace, 189. 
Byron, 159. 

Cable, George Washington, 2oq, 
Caedmon, 7. 
Campbell, Thomas, 157. 
Canterbury Tales, 36. 
Carew, Thomas, 109. 
Carlyle, Thomas, 170 
Carey, Alice and Phoebe, 108. 
Caxton, William, 45. 
Chapman, George, 69. 
Chatterton, Thomas, 149. 
Channing, William Ellery, iSS. 
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 34. 
Cheever, George B., 192. 
Chronicle, The, 13, 
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne,2i8. 
Coffin, Charles C, 202. 
Colet, John, 46, 49. 
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 152. 
Collins, Wilkie, 183. 
Collins, William, 122. 

(233) 



234 



Contentment, 69, 96. 
Cook, Eliza, 177, 
Cooke, Rose Terry, 231. 
Cooper, James Fenimore, 203. 
Coster, 44. 
Coverdale, Miles, 54. 
Cowley, Abraham, 109. 
Cowper, William, 122. 
Crabbe, George, 127. 
Craik, Dinah M., 178. 
Crashaw, Richard, no. 
Crawford, Marion, 206. 
Crockett, S. R., 181. 
Cupid, 87. 

Curtis, George William, 224. 
Cynewulf, 9. 

Dana, Richard Henry, 222. 

Daniel, Samuel, 72. 

DeFoe, 130. 

DeQuincey, Thomas, 166. 

Derby, George H., 216. 

Dexter, Henry M., 189. 

Dialect, 55. 

Dickens, Charles, 169. 

Donne, John, 64. 

Drake, Joseph Rodman, 204. 

Drama, 74, 78, 88. 

Drummond, Henry, 183. 

Drummond, William, 72. 

D yden, John, 105, 115. 

Dunstan, 12. 

Dunbar, William, 58. 

Dwight, Timothy, 185. 

Edwards, Richard, 77. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 185. 
Eggleston, Edward, 208. 
Elfric, 12. 
Eliot, John, 184. 
Eliot, George, 174. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 223. 
Emmons, Nathaniel, 185. 
Ethel wald, 12. 
Evans, Marion, 174.. 

Fairfax, Edward, 6g. 



Fan drill, 133. 
Federalist, 187. 
Field, Eugene, 201. 
Fielding, Henry, 144. 
Fisk, John, 200. 
Fletcher, 87. 
Fletcher, Giles, no. 
Fortescue, John, 41. 
Fox, John, 61. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 186. 
Freedom, 109. 
Friars, 21. 

Froude, James A., 179. 
Fuller, Thomas, 91. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 194. 

Gay, John, 117. 

Geoffrey, 25. 

Gibbon, Edward, 146. 

Gildas, 22, 

Gladness, 58. 

Gleeman, 28. 

Gloucester, Robert of, 27. 

Goldsmith, Oliver, 140. 

Goodrich, Samuel Griswold, 202. 

Gorboduc, 77. 

Cower, John, 33. 

Gray, Thomas, 127. 

Grendel, 5. 

Greene, 81. 

Green, Matthew, 117. 

Ciuiney, Louise I., 232, 

Gutenberg, 45. 

Haggard, Rider, 183. 
Hale, Edward Everett, 227. 
Hall, John, 189. 
Halleck, Fitz Greene, 189. 
Harrington, John, 69. 
Harrington, William, no. 
Harte, Francis Bret, 218. 
Harris, Joel Chandler, 220. 
Harvey, Gabriel, 64. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 205. 
Hawthorne, Julian, 208. 
Hawes, Stephen, 47. 
Hayne, Paul, 196. 



'35 



Hemans, Felicia, 164. 

Henryson, Robert, 58. 

Herbert, George, no. 

Herrick, Robert, 109. 

Hilda, 7. 

Hildreth, Richard, 202. [227. 

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 

Hodge, Charles, 188. 

Hood, Thomas, 163. 

Hohenlinden, 158. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 230. 

Holland, Josiah Gilbert, 224. 

Hooker, Richard, 64. 

Hooker, Thomas, 184. 

Hopkins, Samuel, 185. 

Hopkins, Mark, 189. 

Howard, Henry, 47. 

Howe, Julia Ward, 198. 

Howells, William Dean, 2H. 

Hrothgar, 5. 

Hughes, Thomas, 182. 

Hume, David, 145. 

Hunt, Leigh, 165. 

Huxley, Thomas, 183. 

Ideas, 109. 

Interludes, 75. 

Irving, Washington, 221. 

Jackson, Mrs. Helen Hunt, 228. 
James I of Scotland, 57. 
Jarrow, 1 1. 
Jessop, Rev. Mr,, 23. 
Jewett, Sarah O., 215. 
Johnson, Samuel, 147. 
Jonson, Ben, 87. 

Keats, John, 161. 
Kindness, 124. 
Kingsley, Charles, 176. 
Kipling, Rudyard, 183. 

Lake Poets, 152. 
Lamb, Charles, 165. 
Langland, William, 30. 
Larcom, Lucy, 198. 
Laureate, 106, 128, 154, 174. 



Law, necessity of, 64. 
Layamon, 24. 
Life and Death, 85. 
Lindsay, David, 59. 
Locke, John, 108. 
Locke, David Ross, 217. [191. 
, Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 
Lossing, Benson John, 201. 
Love song, 79. 
Lovelace, Richard, 109. 
Lowell, James Russell, 192, 229. 
Lydgate, John, 40. 
Lyly, John, 61. 
Lylly, William, 46. 

[171. 

Macauley, Thomas Babington, 
Macdonald, George, 182. 
Maclaren, Ian, 181. 
Mallory, Thomas, 41. 
Mandeville, John, 31. 
Marlowe, Christopher, 78. 
Martineau, Harriet, 168. 
Masques, 60, 86. 
Mather, Increase, 184. 
Mather, Cotton, 184. 
McCosh, James, 188. 
McMaster, 202. 
Messiah, 115. 
Miller, Hugh, 175. 
Miller, Joaquin, i960 
Milton, John, 100. 
Miracle Plays, 74. 
Mitchell, Donald Grant, 226. 
Monasteries, 22. 
Moral Plays, 75. 
More, Thomas, 49. 
Morley, John, 183. 
Moore, Thomas, 162. 
Morris, William, 183. 
Morton, Archbishop, 49. 
Motley, John Lothrop, 199. 
Murfee, Mary N., 206. 
Mystery Play, 74. 

Nash, Thomas, 64. 
Nennius, 22. 
Newspapers, III. 



236 



Newton, John, 123. 
Normans, 18. 
Northmen, 18. 

QHphant, Mrs., 183. 
Ormulum, 26. 

Page, Thomas Nelson, 215. 
Pageants, 60. 

Palfrey, John Gorham, 202. 
Pardoner and Friar, 76. 
Paris, Matthew, 23. 
Parkman, Francis, 200. 
Paulding, James Kirke, 204. 
Payne, John Howard, 190. 
Pecock, Reginald, 41. 
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 2II. 
Philips, John, 117. 
Piatt, John James, 198. 
Piers Plowman, 30. 
Poe, Edgar Allan, 190. 
Pope, Alexander, 113. 
Porter, Noah, 189. 
Prentiss, S. S., 192. 
Prescott, William Hickling, 199. 
Printing, 44. 
Prior, 118. 
Psalms, 65. 

Quarles, Francis, no. 

Raleigh, Walter, 67, 90. 
Read, Thomas Buchanan j 198. 
Reade, Charles, 183. 
Religious Poetry, 69, no. 
Richardson, Samuel, 143. 
Riley, James W., 201. 
Robertson, William, 146. 
Robin Hood, 28. 
Roe, E. P., 208. 
Roister Bolster, Ralph, 76. 
Romances, 26. 
Rosetti, 183. 
Ruskin, John, 182. 

Sackville, Thomas, 61, 77. 
Saxe, John Godfrey, 217. 



Schaff, Philip, 189. 
Scott, Walter, 156. 
Scudder, Horace E., 231. 
Shakespeare, William, 80. 
Shaw, Henry W., 216. 
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 160. 
Shirley, 89. 
Sidney, Philip, 62, 90. 
Sigourney, Lydia Huntley, 190. 
Skelcon, John, 47. 
Slavery, 123, 
Smith, Sydney, 154. 
Smollet, Tobias, 144. 
Solitary life, 73. 
Southwell, Robert, 69. 
Southey, Robert, 153. 
Sparks, Jared, 202. 
Spenser, Edmund, 66. 
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 197. 
Steele, Richard, 136. 
Sterne, Laurence, 144. 
Stevens, Robert L., 180. 
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 183. 
Stockton, Frank R., 220. 
Stoddard, Richard Henry, 195. 
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 204. 
St. Augustine, 7. 
Suckling, John, 109. 
Surrey, Earl of, 47. 
Swallow, the, 124. 
Swift, Jonathan, 128. 
Swinburne, 183. 

Tabard Inn, 36. 
Taylor, Bayard, 226. 
Taylor, Jeremy, 97. 
Taylor, William M., 189. 
Tennyson, Alfred, 173. 
Thacicery, William Makepeace, 

171. 
Theater, 77, 89. 
Thomas, Edith, 232. 
Thomson, James, 119. 
Thompson, Maurice, 230. 
Thoreau, Henry David, 223. 
Translations, 68, 185. 
TroUope, Anthony, 183. 



237 



Tyndale, AVilliam, 53. 
Tyndall, John, 183. 

Uclall, Nicholas, 76. 
Utopia, 50. 

Van Dyke, Henry, 214. 

Wallace, Lew, 207. 
Waller, Edmund, 109. 
Walton, Isaak, 92. 
Warner, Charles Dudley, 217. 
Warner, Susan, 205. 
Warner, William, 70. 
Watson, John, 181. 
Watts, 120. 

Wayland, Francis, 183. 
Westminster Abbey, 36, 68, 135 
170. 



White, Richard Grant, 231. 
Whitney, A. D. T., 231. 
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 194. 
Wicliffe, John, 33. 
Wlggin, Kate Douglas, 231. 
WilkirP^, Mary E., 214. 
Williams, Roger, 184. 
Winsor, Justin, 231. 
Winthrop, Theodore, 206. 
Winter, William, 231. 
Wither, George. 110. 
Wolsey, Cardinal, 85. 
W^oolsey, Theodore Dwight, i8g. 
Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 

213. 
Wordsworth, William, 154. 
Wyatt, Thomas, 47. 



i,.y,?S.^.!ii,X. OF CONGRESS 



14 ^V>^ 









-^^ 



: '- K'7 



